Jon Rothstein
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
42!
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Where are we going to see you? Crazy schedule. I'm with you guys tonight, which is awesome. It's a tradition unlike any other. I'm going to fly out to Ohio in the morning. I'll be doing the first four games with Spear Adidas and Jim Spanarkle on Tuesday and Wednesday. I think from the...
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
The big games in the first four, it's the best first four in the history of the first four with Carolina, San Diego State, and Xavier against Texas. And then we are going to go, after we do Wednesday's broadcast, up to Cleveland, and we're going to do those games. So that's Michigan State against Bryant, New Mexico against Marquette.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
That's a great matchup between Donovan Dent and Cam Jones, the two great guards. And then we're also going to do Alabama, Robert Morris, and St. Mary's Vanderbilt. So pumped to be in the great state of Ohio here coming up this week.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I've seen in all my years covering college basketball. And when you think right now about what the criteria is to get teams into the NCAA tournament, at the end of the day, what is always going to usurp everything is who did you play, where did you play them, and did you win? North Carolina was one in 12 against quad one opponents.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
That is just a fact of life. And then when you look at some of the teams that were left out of the bracket, the two that I'm looking at specifically is West Virginia and Indiana. And remember with North Carolina's resume, Carolina also had a quad three defeat on its resume, which Indiana who was left out of the tournament in favor of North Carolina did not have.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And if you're looking at big wins right now, North Carolina had won against the field. It had the win against UCLA in the CBS Sports Classic. Let's look at what Indiana had. And again, remember the Hoosiers had no quad three and four losses.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Indiana won a road game at Michigan State in East Lansing, who is a two seed right now, okay, in the South region, which I've named the region of depth because of the depth that exists with the Spartans, Auburn, Texas A&M, and other programs in that region. And Indiana also beat Purdue at home.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I don't understand how Carolina can get in over Indiana if Indiana won a game at Michigan State and beat Purdue and doesn't have a quad three or four loss, and Carolina does. But what about West Virginia? The miscarriage of justice continues. West Virginia went to Allen Fieldhouse and beat Kansas. West Virginia beat Iowa State at home with three seed.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
and West Virginia on a neutral court beat Arizona State and beat Gonzaga. This is one of the biggest miscarriage of justices that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball on the national level. Now, I will say this. Because North Carolina... does not deserve to be in the NCAA tournament that has no bearing on what the Tar Heels can do when they get into the NCAA tournament.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And I'll give you a perfect example. 14 years ago, I did not believe that VCU deserved to be into the NCAA tournament. VCU then started in the first four and went all the way to the final four under Shaka Smart. And VCU in the regular season that year averaged 8.3, made three-point shots a game, and then made 12 in the NCAA tournament.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So what Carolina does moving forward has no bearing on whether or not the Tar Heels deserve to be in the field. But my heart breaks for West Virginia. It breaks for Indiana that North Carolina got this opportunity instead of them.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He was very, very clear that he was not involved in, obviously, what was going on in the room when North Carolina was brought up. But you guys know this as well as I do. It always helps to help out your friends. And when you're in a situation like this, where the committee chair is from North Carolina, it's obviously going to influence the other committee members.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I understand he can leave the premises when a resume of the Tar Heels is going to be brought to the table, but I'm sorry. This, again, is the biggest miscarriage of justice that I have seen in nearly 20 years covering college basketball at the national level. My heart breaks for Darren DeVries in West Virginia. My heart breaks for Indiana and its fan base.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But again, North Carolina is going to get an opportunity here in the first four to do some major things in this bracket if it can beat San Diego State coming up here on Tuesday night.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah, it feels like in a lot of areas of the bracket, we did not have a compass and there was no rhyme or reason in a lot of things that were going on. I thought for certain that Gonzaga would have been better than an eight after it beat St. Mary's in Las Vegas last week in the WCC tournament. But I'm with you, Kat. I think there's a lot of different things that really stood out here.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Another thing that stood out to me, and I wasn't surprised about this, I felt with the way that the selection committee had treated the Mountain West last year by putting two teams into the first four in Dayton, that Boise State was vulnerable by not winning the automatic qualifier on Saturday, and that's what came to fruition.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Xavier had a pristine resume in quad three and four, and Xavier also, we have to remember – lost two games in December without Zach Fremantle in the lineup, who was a 17-7 guy at UConn in overtime and also by a basket at home against Marquette. As you guys know as well as I do, and we had heard this when we spoke to Bubba Cunningham, I believe on Friday,
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Player availability matters in the NCAA tournament when you're evaluating teams. If Xavier obviously is going to have Zach Freeman on the NCAA tournament, which it will, it's going to be a much more formidable team. I think that is one of the biggest reasons why the Musketeers are going to hook up here with Texas in the first four on Wednesday.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And you guys know I've been doing the first four now for a number of years. We have never had brands like this in the big games in the first four in terms of you know, games on back-to-back nights, North Carolina and San Diego state have appeared in two of the last three national title games.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Xavier is Xavier and get this UD arena is 47 miles away from the Cintas center where Xavier plays its home games. That's going to be obviously a Xavier home game and Texas has a lottery pick in Trey Johnson and it's Texas. Yeah. So I think, you know, the brands in this first four in terms of the marquee games are second to none. And I And I've said this, guys, time and time again.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
The three of us haven't really schmoozed about this, but I want to put it out there right now. You guys know how I feel about NCAA tournament expansion. I've said for a long time that Jeff Goldblum said in The Lost World in 1997 that taking dinosaurs off this island was the worst idea in the history of long said history of bad ideas. Expanding the tournament will be worse than that.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But I do think this. I think if you're good enough to get an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament, you deserve to partake in the Thursday and Friday of the first week. I think if we made that shift and moved all AQs to Thursday, Friday, and then put the last eight at-large teams in the first four...
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
it would reward these programs again at the lower level and give them the NCAA tournament experience of Thursday, Friday, and also spruce up the way we start the tournament with maybe four bigger games instead of two.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It's very possible that we could have flip-flopped Iowa State and Wisconsin if that information was made privy to the committee before the selection went out. I remember it was 25 years ago now. Cincinnati had the best team in the country with Kenyon Martin in 2000. And Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA tournament that year.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And Cincinnati, which had been dominant all year long, number one team consensus in the country, was dropped to the two line. And it was ridiculous. And Bob Huggins said it at the time. But they were evaluating Cincinnati without Kenyon Martin, who wound up being the number one player in the NBA draft. So I totally agree with you on that, Kat.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
All right, guys, well, let's start right now on the top left of your bracket, which is the region of depth, the South region. Now, why is it the region of depth? I'm looking right now at these teams at the top, Auburn, Michigan State, Texas A&M, really deep rotations on all of these teams. All of these teams can really go into their bench. That's why I like it to be the region of depth.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I obviously got Auburn coming out of the top. I am going to take Creighton to beat Louisville at Rupp Arena, the Ryan Kalkbrenner factor. He's kind of like, I haven't really watched a hockey game in probably 30 years. Wasn't Martin Brodeur that famous goalie for the Devils in the 90s? Yeah, he's kind of like the Martin Brodeur of the Big East.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He's kind of like the goalie because he's so good defensively. Then I am going to take Michigan to beat UC San Diego.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Diego who's going to be a trendy upset pick and here's an upset I'm going to take Yale under James Jones a program that beat Auburn last year to pick off Texas A&M and a 13-4 game in Denver remember Yale beat Auburn last year beat Baylor in 2016 and then I think when you look at the next part of the bracket in this region of depth this is tailor-made for Ole Miss this is tailor-made for Chris Beard
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
to really, really go on a run right here. I felt all season long that Ole Miss reminded me of some of the teams that Chris Beard had at Texas Tech. I've got Ole Miss beating the winner of San Diego State Carolina and then beating a vulnerable Iowa State team without Keyshawn Gilbert. Ole Miss to the Sweet 16. I'm going to take Marquette to beat New Mexico and Michigan State to beat Marquette.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So in the Sweet 16 here, I'm going to give you Auburn against Michigan. and I've got Ole Miss against Michigan State. I've got Auburn against Michigan State in a regional final, and I've got Tom Izzo getting back to the Final Four.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I think he's the most underrated coach in America. It amazes me that James Jones has not gotten a bigger job. He has won the Ivy League multiple times in the last couple years, as I mentioned. won a game against Auburn last year in the NCAA tournament, won a game against Baylor in 2016. But I think we could see this Yale team be a factor. But guys, here's the interesting thing.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
When you look at the amazing job that Yale has done, only lost one game this year in the Ivy League. When you think about Yale and you think about the dynamic right now for this team that, again, is going into the NCAA tournament as a trendy, trendy upset pick potentially. Yale is in a scenario, okay, where it lost Danny Wolfe to Michigan and it lost Matt Noling to USC.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And it is still in the scenario that it's in right now where it made the NCAA tournament. That is a credit to the head coach. A couple of names you want to keep your eye out for. for Yale right now as you're getting ready to think about the NCAA tournament against Texas A&M. Nick Townsend, obviously a very, very burly forward inside. He's going to have to hold his own on the glass.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And then John Poulakidis, a dynamite, dynamite lefty shooter, can come off screens. He had 25 against Cornell in the title game. And also Bez Embang, along with Casey Simmons. Cat, you might remember from the Big Ten, started his career at Northwestern before he transferred to New Haven.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah, no, I think PFT, what it does is it reiterates to me that we don't have a dominant team this year in college basketball. And what I mean by that is. Last year, UConn was so removed from the pack because it was a two-year run that we may never see again in our lifetimes in terms of the level of dominance. 12 NCAA tournament wins by an average of 21.7 points per game.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But we do not have a team this year like UConn. We do not have a figure this year like Zach Eady at Purdue last year, the only player since Ralph Sampson in the 1980s to win, obviously, National Player of the Year awards in back-to-back seasons. So I think Auburn's a little bit vulnerable right now.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I do think it's a big advantage for the Tigers to be playing in Atlanta, which isn't that far from the Auburn campus, potentially in the Sweet 16. But if Louisville does beat Creighton, in the first round, Auburn will have a pseudo-road game there at Rupp Arena, which is something to monitor.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
This is the region of prestige because four coaches in this region, Dan Hurley, Rick Pitino, John Calipari, and Bill Selp have won national titles. Also, Florida, the one seed in this region, has won multiple national titles in the last 20 years. So there's brand name power in this region. I got Florida over Norfolk State. I got UConn over Oklahoma, both coaches in that game.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Dan Hurley and Porter Moser have been in a situation where they've coached in a final four in the last decade. Dan Hurley's won two national titles. I'm taking Nick Clifford in Colorado state over Memphis, Maryland over grand Canyon. Drake started from the bottom. Now they're here. In my opinion has, has for all intents and purposes, an interesting road here.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And I'm going to tell you why you got Missouri, Missouri, And you got Ben McCollum, who's really looking like, you know, a bit of a wizard. At Drake, it wouldn't shock me if next year he's coaching somewhere in the Big Ten. He's got a 30-win team with four D2 transfers. One of them, Mitch Muscari, has made 86 three-point shots this year.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
If Drake beats Missouri, Drake gets a vulnerable Texas Tech team in the round of 32. Now, why are they vulnerable? Grant McCaslin told me earlier on Sunday night that he expects Chance McMillan and Darian Williams to play in the first round against UNC Wilmington. But with that said... Those players didn't play in Texas Tech's last Big 12 tournament game due to injuries.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So Texas Tech's a little bit banged up. I think Drake is a team with Ben McCollum, if it can get by Missouri, that could maybe flirt with a chance to go to the Sweet 16. And then how about the lower part of that region in Providence? Kansas and Arkansas, Calipari against Self, two coaches that coached against each other in the title game in 2012, and then St. John's takes on Omaha. Now look,
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
You guys understand media as well as anybody. I work for CBS. I know how much the program executives love to match up certain games on Saturday nights and going to 60 Minutes. And look, whoever St. John's plays on Saturday night is going to be crazy. Can you imagine if we get Calipari and Patino on Saturday night? And look, Patino himself would be great.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It would be an incredible matchup of Hall of Fame coaches. But if it's Calipari and Patino, it would become – appointment television, and it would be the third time that these guys have met in the NCAA tournament, I believe, yeah, since 2012. And remember, they also met in the 1996 Final Four. Now,
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I've talked to Rick Pitino about this, and I did an interview with him when he was at Iona, and he made a joke about it, but I think he was telling the truth. He said one of the reasons why he came back to college was to get John Gallipari off his resume. Because if you think about it, these coaches each took three different schools to a Final Four.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So that's another thing that is lying here in the weeds right now. Rick Pitino is trying to get a fourth school to a Final Four, but he might have to go through John Calipari to do it. It's going to be Calipari herself as long as St. John's gets by Omaha. So I have Florida, UConn, Colorado State, Maryland. Drake, Texas Tech. And then I'm going to go Arkansas, St. John's. I've got St.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
John's against Drake in the Sweet 16. And I've got Florida against Maryland in the region of Prestige. I'm going Florida over St. John's in a regional final. So on the left side of the bracket, I've got Michigan State against Florida. And ironically enough, you know I love good nuggets, guys. That would be a rematch of the 2000 national title game that Michigan State won 89-76 in Indianapolis.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah, you know, guys, it's amazing. And I think it speaks, obviously, how talented Duke is. But it also speaks to the state of the ACC right now. Duke was able to win the ACC tournament and beat Carolina and Louisville in back-to-back days without Cooper Flagg. And also without Malik Brown, who, you know, Duke staff feels this way.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And I know from being, you know, on Duke's campus in the preseason... He's like Emil Jefferson was 10 years ago. Not to bring up bad memories there, Kat, but you know what I'm saying in terms of a versatile defender that can be a factor defensively in that rotation.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Those two players don't play, and all of a sudden, we have a scenario where Duke is still beating Louisville, who was the second-best team this year, other than Clemson in the ACC, and North Carolina. That is not, obviously, a great, obviously, ringing endorsement for the ACC, but for Duke, it speaks to their talent level. I've got Duke playing Mississippi State.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I've got Oregon-Arizona, which to me could be one of the best games in the round of 32, these former Pac-12 rivals hooking up. Then I'm going to take VCU to beat BYU to hook up with Wisconsin, the most aesthetically pleasing Wisconsin team of our lifetime. Thank you. And then I'm going to be in Cleveland for these games, so I'm pumped about this. I'm taking St. Mary's to beat Vanderbilt.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I'm taking Alabama to beat Robert Morris. I've got Duke-Oregon. Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 to take on Alabama, and then I am going to take in a rematch of the 2015 national title game Duke over Wisconsin in Newark to go to the Final Four. That's the region of firepower because Duke, Alabama, Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon, obviously explosive teams offensively. So much offense in that region.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
If you want to use that, use that one. I like BYU. I think Kevin Young's done an incredible job, and I think they got great pieces. But look, it's not fun if you don't roll the dice places in your bracket. The NCAA tournament isn't fun. So I'm looking right now at the BYU-VCU matchup, and I know that we have seen – a scenario where BYU has played great basketball the last couple weeks.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It wouldn't shock me if BYU wins a couple games, but I'm looking at this. VCU is no 11th seed, and if there was one thing that I would say right now, the non-power conference teams in this bracket, in a lot of places... won their respective conference tournaments after having a high volume of wins during the regular season.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
VCU, with Max Shulga, Zeb Jackson, Joe Bamaseel, all these guys, okay, Phillip Russell as well, has the deepest perimeter. In the Atlantic 10, since Dan Hurley's last team at Rhode Island, had Fats Russell, Jeff Doughton, Stan Robinson, JT Terrell, EC Matthews, and Jarvis Garrett. That team, you have to remember, beat Trey Young in Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament and lost to Marvin Bagley in Duke.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
in 2018 this vcu team is for real and also another player on vcu jack clark was a part of the clemson team last year that went to the elite eight and lost to alabama vcu is the best vcu team since we saw briante weber and company lose to steven of austin in 2014 john when you when you're rattling off all these names from old teams do you ever just think about making up a name and tossing it in there see if you get called on it i would do that if i were you
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It's an interesting proposition. It never crossed my mind. I just go to the internal hard drive, and I just keep it moving.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
You know me, though, BFT, and you're America's drinking buddy for a reason. I pride myself on being as accurate and as thorough as possible. So I feel like I'd be shortchanging the beat if I did that.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah, I have an update for you. I had a bunch of injury updates earlier, so I'm going to just read you exactly what I tweeted. Nate Oates texted me this in the early afternoon, but I want to give you guys the full reports. I have a couple of injury updates of substance for the NCAA tournament, so you guys just let me know what you want.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So Grant Nelson's going to see a knee specialist on Monday to determine his status moving forward. He obviously suffered the injury, so that evaluation's going to happen on Monday. And then, as I told you, Alabama plays Robert Morris in Cleveland. That's one to monitor. Some other stuff from Sunday, and this is big for the first four.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Brian Dutcher told me that Magoon Guaf, the Mountain West freshman and defensive player of the year, is going to be available for the NCAA tournament this So in the first four, Tuesday night, Magoon Guath will be available to play against North Carolina. He hasn't played since February 22nd. That's a big boost for San Diego State.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Mark Pope also told me earlier on Sunday morning that Lamont Butler will be available for Kentucky's first NCAA tournament game. He's been dealing with a shoulder. And John Calipari has told me that Adu Thiro is doubtful for the Kansas game due to the knee injury he has been dealing with.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He hasn't played since February 22nd, but Boogie Fland, who we thought was out for the season, came back on Sunday to practice, went through practice, had no missteps. He should be fine. I was referencing the Missouri Drake game. According to a school spokesman, Mark Mitchell from Missouri is expected to be fully available for that basketball game against Drake in the round of 64.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
A note from Scott Drew, Langston Love is expected to be available against Mississippi State in the East region. He averages just over eight points per game. Another nugget for a number one seed. Kelvin Sampson told me that Jawan Roberts, who did not play at the end of the Big 12 tournament due to an ankle injury, they're obviously veteran leader, is receiving treatment.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He'll be reevaluated on Monday in terms of his status for the Cougars' first game. I just want to make sure I don't leave anything out there. But those are the bullet points as of now, fellas.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Every single one, I believe. What I do is, when I get back from the Final Four, you use April to detox a little bit, and then you spend some time over the summer just making sure your Rolodex is on point and everything is on point, and then you just go. You make sure you're locked in.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I would say probably... What do you think?
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
when you're trying to cover everything you want to I always try to as somebody who's a non-player coach get the insight of the player of you know the teams that I'm covering from their perspective so it's constant communication and in the offseason it's constant communication as well because there's things to cover during the offseason yeah I like that yeah because I mean I read the article uh in the New York Times it was great uh that said that the Rothstein text is an inside joke in the industry now I feel like they're being disrespectful to you with that
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
No, I mean, look, I mean, you guys know me now for a number of years. I mean, I don't make any bones about this. You know, I did not have any connections in this industry. You know, I have no inheritance, so I don't have any other choice but to work as hard as I can each and every single day to be as thorough as I can to do the best job I can. And I'm never going to relent on that.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It's never going to happen. I'm never going to stop. The world meets nobody halfway. And you know that because you told me that you thought Over the Top was an underrated movie by Stallone.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Every Sunday, yeah, 10 a.m.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yes, as long as I'm home. As long as I'm home, 10 a.m. every Sunday. Creature or habit.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
On the road this week because I'm leaving Monday, and obviously I couldn't do it Selection Sunday. I got it Thursday, and I said just go a little shorter on the sides because I'm not going to be back in New York for a week from now because I'm going to Dayton, and then we're going up to Cleveland. And those first and second round games are Friday, Sunday.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But I want to tell you guys something if I can backtrack a little bit because I know you guys obviously started out with Humble Beginnings too. That experience – of selling airtime was the most humbling experience that I ever had in my life, because at that time I was making like $13 an hour screening calls and doing reporting at ESPN Radio New York.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I was cold calling for my friend's brother's mortgage company like Glen Gary Glen Ross. That was like what I was living in, just cold calling people out of the Yellow Pages. And I was like making $50 an article writing college basketball for different publications. So I knew, though, I needed like a demo to try and have an opportunity.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So I would like walk up and down New Rochelle going into businesses trying to buy airtime and nobody would buy anything. And I remember talking to a guy in a car dealership and this is like probably 20 years ago. And I said, well, if I do a weekly show, you know, will you buy some airtime? And he goes, well, is Joe Torre a weekly guest? And I didn't know who that was at the time.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And then he was like, he's like, well, Joe Torre is not a weekly guest and I'm not doing it. And it was that moment where I was just like, look, I'm not going to become anything in this business unless I have calluses and I'm getting calluses right now. But that also brought me back to the over the top thing. You know, the world meets nobody halfway.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And to get into it is awesome. Well, another thing too, and you guys know I have a passion for this, but in my 20s, when people that I was close with in New York and friends like that were taking vacations and traveling, I went to AAU tournaments and networked. That's what I would do. I would sit with Dan Hurley when he was at Wagner and build a relationship. I would sit with Bill Self.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I drove once, I remember, to Virginia. There was this big tournament down there, Boo Williams. And I drove, it was like seven hours each way. And I just went, I like made business cards at Kinko's and I just went and just networked and networked and networked. And, you know, I feel like, you know, when that is your backbone every single day, you owe it to yourself.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But most of all, you owe it to your bosses who continue to give you these great assignments to give everybody the best you can every single day. Now, I do want to, because I feel like we're close. share something personal with you. Two things personal. But I switched recently. I was kind of pressured. I had a little crisis.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And I don't know if you noticed this when we were texting earlier, but it was probably, I've had dreams, and I will admit this to you guys publicly, I've had dreams because of how much my life revolves around my phone and I need it like the machine rolling.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I've had dreams that I've been at a pool party and I jump and do like a cannonball and my phone's on me and it's like nightmares and I wake up and I'm like, I didn't do that. So a couple of weeks ago, you guys know I've been a droid guy my entire life. Like there's like twice a year, there's like something that happens where there's like an iOS upgrade and droid people can't text iPhones.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And like it was giving me a kind of hurrah. I started to schvitz. Like I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't communicate with people. And communication is so important. So my wife, you know, we have a child now who's 18 months, 18 months old. She couldn't get in touch with me. And you start to flip out. So one day, I just ripped the Band-Aid off, and now I'm Team Blue Bubbles.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So I'm adjusting to it. I'm adjusting to it. So that, I thought, was a life-altering experience. The day after I switched to an iPhone. It was either day or week after.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
That's what I'm saying. So but then again, then get this. This is another thing that happened. So I and you guys know how sometimes like I'll tweet in the spring. It's like in April or May. Like, I hate you, pollen. Yeah, I've tweeted that in the past. Last year, I was having a bad deal with allergies. You know, I just said to myself, should I get allergy shots?
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And I went and investigated with my local allergist. And they said, you can do 32 rounds of shots and you should be 80% immune. And I was like, I don't want to get back from the final four when everything's over and have to deal with allergies. I'm sick of dealing with allergies. So there's 32 rounds of shots to be done with it. So I get through 30 rounds of shots. Okay.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
This is like maybe two weeks ago. I go for my 31st shot. I get it. I think, you know, you go to the gym, get your allergy shot, come home, do your podcast, whatever. I start having this weird reaction like I'm Jack Nicholson and something's got to give. I'm sitting on a stoop and I'm sweating. I go back to the doctor's office. I start throwing up.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
They give me two shots of an EpiPen to calm me down. And I just remember like my life was flashing in front of my eyes. But I said, I remember I said to these people, it was crazy. I said, if I'm going to go, I'm not going before March.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I can't. I said, if you want to take me, take me on April 10th. Don't take me now.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Exactly.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Exactly, exactly.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Probably 10 to 15, especially when the TV's on and like you're just soaking everything in and you see close finishes, you see crazy upsets. I mean, it's a part of the fabric of college basketball. It's definitely a big part of my life. And the thing that's so humbling is like a takeaway I've gotten from that article and some of a very prominent media reporter reached out to me.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He's like, I'd like to do a feature on your wife. She sounds a lot more interesting than you do. I was like, yeah, I guess you don't care about the path, obviously, in the region of firepower. Yeah.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Okay, this is the region of toughness. Think about, guys, the coaches in the scowling that is involved in this region. Kelvin Sampson, Houston. Rick Barnes, Tennessee. Mick Cronin, UCLA. Brad Underwood at Illinois. This is a dynamite region. I've got Houston. I've got Gonzaga beating Georgia. I've got McNeese. coached by Will Wade, beating his alma mater, Clemson, in the 12-5.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Remember, Will Wade was a student manager at Clemson before he got into coaching. That's my 12-5. I got Purdue over High Point. I've got Illinois over the Texas Xavier winner, Kentucky, UCLA, and Tennessee. Then we're going bottom.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I got Houston against Purdue, and then I'm going to take Illinois against Tennessee in the Sweet 16, and I'm going to take Illinois against Houston in the Elite Eight, and I got Houston going on the Final Four. So I got Houston against Duke on one side. Houston comes out of the region to toughness.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
On the other side, I've got Michigan State and Florida, and I've got Houston finally breaking through under Kelvin Sampson and winning the national championship. Kelvin Sampson, again, I've said it before, this is why Houston basketball's nickname is No Mercy. He reminds me a lot of the sensei and karate kid, John Kreese. You know, remember when he said, strike first, strike hard, no mercy, sir.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
That's what Kelvin Sampson reminds me of. He's a much kinder man than Martin Koval as in the Karate Kid, but he has that same type of fierce kind of presence.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He doesn't win, and if you remember at the start of Karate Kid 2, his knuckles bleed because he punches them through a car when he gets in a fight with Mr. Miyagi.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I don't think Villanova is the school to give Will Wade a call, but I will say this. We have seen a number of big-time coaches get second chances for off-the-court issues, and there's many programs that are coached by them now in this NCAA tournament, and those programs are thriving. Bruce Beard at Ole Miss, Rick Pitino at St. John's, Bruce Pearl at Auburn, Kelvin Sampson at Houston.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
The school that hires Will Wade is going to be the school that falls next in that line. Think about this. Here's a couple of things on Will Wade I was thinking about. I talked about it tonight on our show. Will Wade is the only coach in Shaka Smart to win an NCAA tournament game at VCU.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Will Wade won the SEC regular season title at LSU, and Will Wade, since he took the McNeese job in two years, is 57 and 10. I know that things were very sloppy at LSU, but a lot of those things are legal right now. So the school that hires him is going to be on an upward trajectory moving forward, and I'm going to have to come up with a new tagline for him.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah. Oh, he's a star. Yeah. Amir Khan is a star. Yeah.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
You know, I did on Thanksgiving Day, CBS Sports had a Thanksgiving game now after the NFL. Next year it's going to be Arkansas and Duke and Chicago, which maybe you guys can go to. I don't know if you want to do it on Thanksgiving, but it's a big-time game in Chicago. It is. I did the game with Ian Eagle and Bill Raftery in Kansas City, and I saw Illinois up close.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
And when everything is equal on a neutral court – and, Cat, I know you know this because you know the Big Ten so well – Illinois has Final Four talent when things are clicking. Yeah. with Yakuchonas, with Ivasich. There's obviously great role players and ancillary pieces around those guys with Boswell. Will Riley, I talked to Brad Underwood last week.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He loves the way Will Riley has been playing the last couple of weeks. And this is the thing, too, you've got to like when you're looking at Illinois.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Because of Ivasich's ability to stretch things from the five spot, it's very difficult, and this is what killed Arkansas in that game on Thanksgiving, it's very difficult to play a traditional five man against them because they can extend the defense so much with Ivasich. He reminds me a lot, this is a throwback comparison, he reminds me a lot of Rafe LaFrance. Ooh, I like that, Kansas.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
So much Rafe LaFrance and Tomislav Ivasich.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It's good. It's great. And you bring up a great point because a potential Illinois-Kentucky game in the round of 32 would be like a regional final. But guys, I've always felt that the round of 32 is the most intriguing round of the NCAA tournament because you are going to get, in some cases, the dreamer having a chance to dream the dream for another week. Yeah.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
or you are going to get a massive showdown of powerful programs. Look, we could have in the region of toughness, you could have Houston-Gonzaga, Purdue-Clemson, Illinois-Kentucky, or Xavier against Kentucky, and then UCLA against Tennessee. If we saw any one of those matchups in an Elite Eight or a Final Four, we'd probably take it. Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
How deep do you want to go? Do you want power conference names, or do you want me to get really in the weeds here?
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Okay, let's go right up right now to the top left, the region of depth. Donovan Dent from New Mexico is one of the great point guards in college basketball. That is somebody you want to put on your radar for sure. Ole Miss has a couple of players. Sean Padula, a terrific veteran point guard who transferred from Virginia Tech. Also, John Poulakidis, I told you, from Yale.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
We go down to the region of prestige right now. A couple of guys, again, who are off the radar I'm trying to come up with. Bennett Sturtz at Drake, who's kind of the maestro for them. Also, Neat Clifford from Colorado State, who has been part of this incredible surge by Colorado State. He has been elite, playing like one of the top 15 or 20 players in the country over the last couple of weeks.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I will also point out in the UConn-Oklahoma game, Jeremiah Fears, the freshman point guard for Oklahoma, the brother of Michigan State's Jeremy Fears, is a name to watch. And then as we look right now in your top right, the region of firepower, I'm going to give you one for Mississippi State, Josh Hubbard, an electrifying yard. Plus Oregon, you've got Jackson Shelstad and Nate Biddle.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Max Shulga at VCU. Richie Saunders at BYU. At St. Mary's, Augustus Marshalonis is the least talked about back-to-back conference player of the year we may have in history. He's won the award in the WCC in back-to-back seasons. Ryan Nembhard we know from Gonzaga. For Georgia, a talented player, Asa Newell, who's a good freshman. I'm trying to keep going down.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Ryan Conwell at Xavier is like a poor man's Michael Redd. He will be in the first four Wednesday night in the Xavier, Texas game. And then I'm going to say, I mean, UCLA, I mean, you don't really get in the weeds here too much. But, I mean, UCLA, Eric Daly and Tyler Bilodeau, I would say, are two names there.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Right. I know. I know that. But in terms of, like, Todd was always this guy. And, like, I'll just – I talked about this with Bruce Pearl on our show tonight. When Bruce Pearl first got the Auburn job, you know, I went down to a practice and we went out to eat after. And, like, Todd was this guy who wasn't even, like, an assistant coach on the staff.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But everybody looked at him as, like, this prodigy. And he had this incredible mind for basketball. And he had these –
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
unique ways to evaluate and he was always kind of ahead of things with the analytics and he used that you know he had that team at san francisco a couple years ago that went to the tournament and you know gotten that large bid and now he's doing incredible things in florida and guys i want to say this because todd golden i had my top five for national coach of the year and this is not to disparage him at all as a coach but obviously he's still so young
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
If Billy Donovan was coaching this Florida team with the way we're playing, Florida would be universally viewed as the favorite to win the national championship, and it wouldn't be close. But Todd knows he's got to prove it in the NCAA tournament, but Florida is ripping through college basketball right now like a chainsaw through butter.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Okay, I appreciate the amendment, but you guys know part of what gives me balance is when I get through the final four and things get a little quieter, I love having a Peroni and a bowl of Terralis and watching these old movies that I've watched 15 to 20 times, sometimes more. The social network is in that rotation.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
He is a real person.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I don't know, man. You said one a couple of years ago for Wake Forest, like run, Forrest, run. We had to kind of put that in the lead files. You think that's good?
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
It can't be Forrest.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Sure. Well, let's just use Wisconsin as an example because that's obviously some common ground for us right here. So a flare screen is this. Let's say we have three players on the perimeter. Let's say John Blackwell is on the point and on the two wings. On the right wing is John Tonjan and the other side is Max Klesman.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
If Blackwell throws the ball to the right wing, he is then going to go to the left to kind of drip to the corner, and Klezman is going to come and set a back screen on Blackwell's man, and then Tonje would throw it over the top to John Blackwell and get him a shot.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Now, another thing is the guy who's the screener on that back screen is also a threat to roll to the basket and get an easy layup because the defense then might think that the play is going over the top to John Blackwell. So that's the flair screen. Okay. I love it. I love it.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Yeah, it's the best time of year. I appreciate you guys. This is something I look forward to every single year. And if I make it to Chicago this summer, I hope to see you guys. Yes. Also, you know, you guys enjoy the tournament too, because Kat, I'm telling you, man, I don't know if it can happen, but Wisconsin has enough here to at least get to the second weekend.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I know you live and die with that team and they got the best off guard in America.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
If I'm fortunate enough to get the assignment again, but I mean, but you know me, I have to, I focus on a game day. Like when I have a game day assignment, like it's like, you know, that's the only thing that matters. So I can't unwind until that happens.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
But then you and I, I could get in a little disagreement because I'm going to want like feast week on the TV and you're going to want to watch the NFL.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
How many TVs?
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I love, I love, I love, you guys know I love New York more than anything. As you guys know, I used to watch Cocktail Wall Street, The Secret of My Success, nonstop. But there's nothing like a great long weekend in Chicago, especially in the summer. So come do it. Love Gibson's Italia. So come do it. Tremendous, great portion sizes. Come do it. Let's get it.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
Let's live it up. We were going to take a long weekend with the baby last summer, and we didn't think she was ready for it, but maybe this summer she will be. We love that architecture tour, too. That's big time. It's like Vince Vaughn in The Breakup.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
I do. I will not waste calories on pizza outside of the Eastern Times.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
We had a Super Bowl party and I was so tired from the weekend in college basketball. I like dozed off a little bit, even though, you know, just because I couldn't take the game. And my wife came over and said, we have an apartment full of people. You can't sleep. And I said, you're right. We sleep in May.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
There we go.
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Jon Rothstein Breaking Down The NCAA Tournament, We Have Our Brackets In Our Hands Ready For The Best Week + Who's Back Of The Week
You got it. Love you guys. Have a great tournament.