Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And what else is pretty cool, Friday night college basketball and a blue blood battle in Bloomington
00:07inside Assembly Hall. Of course, a lot going on right now with IU. They're going to need a new
00:14head coach at the end of this year. Mike Woodson is stepping down. A lot of Bloomington, Indiana
00:19focused on a native of Bloomington. That would be a certain man by the name of Brad Stevens,
00:25who currently is the front office exec of the Boston Celtics. But even with all of that,
00:30Joe, and the chaos outside of the basketball court, Indiana, huge upset, double-digit dog
00:37on the road earlier this week, Tuesday night in East Lansing, knocking off Michigan State. UCLA
00:45continues to be on the road where they were on Tuesday in Champaign, gave Illinois a good test
00:52down the stretch to make it a competitive game, but still came up short by five, did cover as a
00:57six and a half point road dog. But Joe, the story for the Bruins, and Mick Cronin has made it pretty
01:03clear all year long, that Big Ten expansion leads to a lot of Big Ten travel. And UCLA and Big Ten
01:10play has not been great outside of the Pacific time zone. They are nine and one in the Pacific
01:17time zone. That even includes road games in the Northwest or inside the Galen Center against USC.
01:24But Joe, in the Central or Eastern time zones, where much of the Big Ten resides, UCLA is now
01:32oh and four straight up. Indiana in the Midwest, and they're a slight home dog tonight against UCLA.
01:41How do you consider this blue blood battle playing out? Yeah, I mean, I'm showing oh and five in the
01:47Pacific, outside of the Pacific or mountain time zones, Ben. So the problem is they've been in the
01:53Midwest now. This is the second game for them. As you mentioned, they're against Illinois. So they've
01:59had some time here to assimilate and get used to the time change. And Cronin's been, you know, he's
02:06been screaming and yelling from the beginning that it's just unfair what the schedule is. But
02:11give credit to Mick Cronin and UCLA. They have responded against adversity, you know, a couple
02:18of months ago, all those trips out east. I mean, they were going through it. But this is a good
02:22team. This is a very, very good team that I think will not be surprised by any sort of zone defense
02:31that Indiana might throw at them like Michigan State was. I think UCLA is primed for a bounce
02:38back. And I think Indiana, listen, Woodson's leaving for a reason. I think they come back
02:44down to reality here. And ultimately, UCLA will get its first win outside of those time zones.
02:51There was a lot at stake on Tuesday night in East Lansing. There was an opportunity for Tom Izzo
02:57with a victory, which the oddsmakers expected the Spartans to have. Frankly,
03:02everybody did, understanding that Indiana was riding a five-game skid for Izzo to win Big
03:07Ten game number 354, moving past Bob Knight, the Indiana great, for the winningest head coach ever
03:15in Big Ten games in men's basketball history. Mike Woodson, for his former head coach when
03:21he was a player in Bloomington, had other ideas. Was that the peak for IU? Do they continue it
03:28back home inside Assembly Hall? And then maybe you saw that title. Blue blood battle. Are these
03:34guys crazy? They are blue bloods. Both of them. UCLA, of course, the most national championships
03:40ever in men's Division I college basketball, 11. They haven't won one since 1995, but they do
03:48have 11. Indiana has five. They haven't won one since 1987 under Bob Knight, but they also
03:55have five. These two programs, two of the six programs at the D1 level in men's college hoops
04:02with at least five national championships. More college basketball next. So some college
04:08basketball on this Friday night and a ton of college basketball this weekend. We have such
04:15a great slate of games tomorrow and even Sunday. And on Sunday, we will be four weeks out exactly
04:23from selection Sunday when an NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled. And Joe, tomorrow at 12.30
04:31p.m. Eastern time on a Saturday afternoon, really before the entirety of the college hoop slate gets
04:36underway, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will come together to give us that sneak preview
04:42they have the past few years. The top 16 seeds as they see it right now for the big dance in just
04:50about a month. And it's starting to feel like these games are even more important night in,
04:55night out, week over week. And Joe, tomorrow, we make some history. For the first ever time
05:03in SEC men's basketball, we have a matchup between the number one team in the AP poll
05:09and the number two team in the AP poll. And it's a rivalry now amplified. The Iron Basketball,
05:17if you will, between number one Auburn and number two Alabama. Tomorrow, inside Coleman Coliseum,
05:24a 4 p.m. Eastern time. Tip is when we expect to get things underway between one versus two.
05:33The line is already out. You don't often get lines for Saturday this early on a Friday morning
05:39unless the game is a monumental matchup. And that's what we have. The Tide, an ever so slight
05:45favorite at home, but it's basically a pick'em with an outlandishly high total of 171.5. That's
05:53what you have when you have Alabama, one of the best offenses in the country, and an Auburn team
05:59that, of course, can keep pace. Just to say what is at stake for this game, not just the first one
06:06versus two ever in the history of SEC men's basketball, our first one versus two in men's
06:11hoops since November 2021. Just our fifth one versus two game in the last decade in men's
06:19college basketball. And, oh yeah, not only a rivalry between the Tigers and the Tide, but a
06:25game, Joe, that could decide the top spot in the SEC. With all of that history and all of that
06:33significance on the line tomorrow afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Joe, will the game match the hype?
06:41Yeah, well, you got to think, well, look at our total, Ben, like 171.5. And I don't think people
06:46realize how unbelievably rare this is. They went to 64 teams, Ben, back in 1984 and 85 for the
06:55tournament. And since then, we've only had 16 regular season matchups between number one and
07:03number two. The most recent was in 2021 when Gonzaga destroyed number two UCLA. But outside of
07:10that, we've only had eight matchups that have actually ever come from the same conference. I
07:15mean, this is rarefied college basketball that we're going to get where number one and number
07:21two are facing each other from the same conference at this point in the season here. And by the way,
07:27usually those two teams, or at least history tells us, they make a deep run in March here.
07:33None of them have ever won it, though, of those 16 games. No team has ever actually won it all.
07:38But boy, oh boy, they have made a run. And you look at these two teams, Ben, number one and
07:43number two in offensive efficiency. That's why that total is the way it is. And don't forget,
07:48to start the season, Alabama couldn't hit a three if their life depended on it. Not so much anymore
07:55here, Ben. Now they're hitting almost 40% of their threes. They're now 40th in the country
08:01in three-point efficiency. I don't expect a lot of defense. I expect a lot of points in this game.
08:08And last year, Joe, we knew that this was Alabama's style. It has been under Nate Oates.
08:14They attempt a majority, not a majority, but a lot of their shots from three. They play at a
08:20very fast tempo, and they are elite on the offensive end. But last year, at the end of the
08:25NCAA tournament, Alabama ended 111th in adjusted defensive efficiency on Ken Pong. This year,
08:34they're 40th. They're never going to be in elite defense. Their style does not allow that to be
08:40the case. They don't play a half-court, grind-it-out type of game. But to be better by 70
08:45spots speaks lengths about what the Crimson Tide have done to shore up their defensive side of the
08:53four. Auburn, most efficient offense, 17th most efficient defense. This will be just the third
08:59game for the Tigers this year as an underdog. They won outright against Houston on the road
09:07opening few weeks of the year. They did not cover against Duke inside Cameron indoor before SEC
09:14play started. First game for the Tigers officially as an underdog within the SEC.
09:22Let's talk about the rest of our Saturday slate in college basketball next. What a Saturday and
09:28really weekend we have in college basketball. So many great games on Saturday. Even a couple that
09:35we will see on Sunday. The weekend watch list, Joe, in total, four top 25 tilts. A couple of
09:43these tomorrow that will highlight, at least on this page, we also have one versus two. So make
09:49that five top 25 tilts in total ranked versus ranked with a couple others that are also
09:56sensational. Some games tomorrow, a big one of the big 12. Houston heads out to Tucson to take on
10:03Arizona. Wisconsin travels to Mackey to visit Purdue. The Boilermakers hoping to bounce back
10:10from a loss earlier this week on the road inside the Chrysler Center. Elsewhere in the SEC,
10:16a couple of rivalries tomorrow. One versus two between Auburn and Alabama. How about the eighth
10:22bowl in basketball? Mississippi State visiting Oxford and Ole Miss. The Bulldogs struggling.
10:28They've dropped six of their last nine. And Joe, a game on Sunday afternoon inside Madison Square
10:34Garden between St. John's and Creighton that will decide the top spot in the Big East. The
10:40Johnnies saw their 10-game win streak come to a close earlier in the week at Villanova. Tyler
10:46Perkins burying a triple in the final 10 seconds of regulation to give the Cats the victory.
10:52Creighton saw its nine-game win streak snap earlier in the week at home against UConn. Both
10:59teams trying to start a new streak. And the winner of that game will take over sole possession
11:04based on tiebreaker in the Big East come Sunday afternoon at the close inside the Mecca. It just
11:11speaks, Joe, to the strength of this weekend in college basketball, both Saturday and Sunday.
11:18Yeah, I got to tell you, very interesting, a couple of these games. I think the Johnnies
11:25coming off a game against Villanova in which they took more threes than two-point shots.
11:31I think there's going to be a big adjustment in that game for St. John's against Creighton,
11:37but that's a huge game for the Big East because the Johnnies win. They're firmly in control
11:42of that situation there. It's a big opportunity for Creighton here to go to Madison Square Garden
11:49and handle business. St. John's just doesn't shoot well enough for me. But the Houston and
11:54Arizona game, I think, is monstrous. I think this is the worst Tommy Lloyd Arizona team
12:00that he has had. And I think that's saying something here, Ben. But this Houston team
12:06is so different than what we've seen in years past with Coach Sampson, where we always knew
12:10they could play defense. It was offensively that worried you. They'd have to play these games,
12:17first one to 55-60 would win. Well, not anymore. This is a team shooting 40 percent from three this
12:24year, Ben. This team is one of the best shooting teams in the country, coupled with that defense.
12:30Houston's won 16 of its last 17 for a reason, Ben, and they are very much alive for a national
12:36championship this year. They still play at a very slow tempo. That's what they do. Fifth slowest in
12:43the country. This, Joe, is the only matchup between the Cougs and the Wildcats, the top two
12:50teams in the Big 12. Houston is 12 and 1. Arizona is 11 and 2. Arizona visited Kansas State earlier
12:59this week and learned how great of basketball the other Wildcats are playing. Jerome Tang's team
13:06has won six in a row and covered in nine straight. Joe, to your point on Houston,
13:13great defensively, top five. Yeah, that's what Kelvin Sampson does. Sixth most efficient offense
13:20in the country. That is a recipe for success, not just within the Big 12, but deep, deep, deep
13:27into the Big Dance in a Final Four run. Houston a little bit under the radar to start. I would not
13:34say any longer. Joe, where we stand right now, this early on a Friday morning, we don't have
13:40the odds out just yet on our lovely provider, the FanDuel Sportsbook, for most of those matchups,
13:46even the top 25 ranked versus ranked games that we have tomorrow. The only one we do as of this
13:52moment, one versus two, Auburn versus Alabama. So we use the Ken Palm projections to try to get a
14:00feel of who's going to be favored, what the over under is going to look like. Ken Palm has Houston
14:05winning by three tomorrow in Tucson, so we would expect the Cats to be a slight underdog at home.
14:13Big bounce back spot for Purdue against the Wisconsin team that can really light it up
14:19offensively this year. Again, the Bulldogs from Starkville, Mississippi State, dropped six of
14:26their last nine, Joe. They've only covered once in that span. Ole Miss playing better basketball.
14:31Creighton and St. John's important because St. John's is most recent loss before earlier this
14:37week on Wednesday against Villanova, came against Creighton in Omaha, and then the Johnnies went on
14:44that 10-game win streak. So if St. John's does falter inside Madison Square Garden, they'll be
14:50a slight home favorite, of course, against the Jays. Creighton would have the season series sweep
14:56and have that tiebreaker advantage, but both teams would have the same record within the
15:01Big East. So very important jockeying here as we are about four weeks away from Selection Sunday.
15:08Joe, only really about six, seven, eight games remaining in conference action for these teams
15:14before we get to conference tournaments and then, of course, the weekend that will decide the bracket.
15:20Yeah, it's crunch time here, Ben. Some of these teams, certainly some of the teams on the bubble
15:27who need some wins and need them desperately. This is the time of year, Ben, where you can
15:34really find some value, especially in those one-and-done conferences, Ben. We got a lot of
15:39them here where teams, well, they need to win their conference tournament or they need to finish
15:45up at the top in order to give themselves a chance to go dancing. I think it's going to be
15:50fascinating to see with all of these readjusted and alignment and these conferences, some of the
15:57names that are going to be left out this year, Ben, I think are going to be staggering.
16:02And you look at the bubble because of what we have seen throughout conference play,
16:07it's not exactly the strongest or firmest bubble we have seen in recent years. Duke continues to
16:14run roughshod through the ACC. They bounced back from their loss last Saturday at Clemson with a
16:1921-point win against Cal. The Berkley Bears did cover as a 23-and-a-half-point road dog. Duke
16:26gets Stanford, who has been good at times this year in the ACC under Kyle Smith in his first
16:31year in Palo Alto, but now they have dropped three of their last four. Tennessee hoping to bounce
16:36back from a loss earlier in the week inside her up against Kentucky. They host Vanderbilt. Keep
16:41an eye on Texas A&M playing great ball right now under Buzz Williams. Getting an Arkansas team, Joe,
16:48the Razorbacks playing better in the last two weeks. That should be a really good game.
16:53Michigan State and Illinois tomorrow night, 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox, one of my favorite games
16:59of the day. The Illini not ranked, but I think if you were to look at them, you would consider them
17:03one of the 20 or 25 best teams in the country. That should be a great one. The Spartans looking
17:09to stay atop the Big Ten standings to rival their biggest rival in Michigan, who heads to Columbus on
17:17Sunday afternoon for a very big game in that rivalry between the Wolverines and the Buckeyes
17:23and Kentucky hoping to keep it going tomorrow afternoon in Austin against Texas. Yeah, I mean,
17:30listen, that was a huge win for Dusty May and Michigan coming back there against Purdue. Now
17:38the question is, can they build off of that or are they going to go to Ohio State and get
17:43pummeled? And that's the fear that you have with this Michigan team. I think Arkansas has
17:50finally figured some things out. I think that is going to be maybe the more interesting matchup
17:56of the weekend. Can they put a string of together of some wins against some ranked teams?
18:02Then all of a sudden, Calipari very firmly in the mix.
18:06They've won three of their last four, Joe, including that return for Coach Cal two Saturdays
18:11ago to Lexington and Rupp Arena. The only loss last Saturday at home to Alabama, but only by
18:19four points. It wasn't a disastrous effort by any means. Again, we don't have the odds out for any
18:25of these games outside of one versus two, Auburn and Alabama tomorrow. Certainly not the Sunday
18:31games, but Michigan is projected right now to lose by two points against Ohio state. That could
18:38be one of those weird phenomenons in college basketball where the unranked home team and
18:43the Buckeyes are a home favorite.