001 - Tigers win on Opening Day; Sweet 16 underway 032726

0:00Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner, navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most. It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Healthcare. Morning and Arbor, Michigan TGIF. Happy Friday everybody. It is Friday, March 27, 2026. This is the Michigan insider. This is the big 1050 WTK online at the big 1050.com. It's our travel day. Sam and I'll be heading to Chicago shortly after the show to get ready for tonight's sweet 16 action in the witty city, Michigan versus Alabama is the first game.

1:00And then of course, Iowa State and Tennessee is a second game. And then the expectation is that Michigan wins and moves on to Sunday. But if you watch the last night, you'll know that can't always expect or guarantee that the expectation is what is going to happen. So we'll talk basketball this morning, a lot of basketball this morning here on the Michigan insider on the big 1050 WTK online at the big 1050.com, including some coverage from Chicago from yesterday, Alejandro Zanigan, Zach Shaw are already there. And Sam and I will be there a little bit later as I said today. But yesterday we heard from Trayma Kinney, Roddy Gale, Jr., and Yoxel Lendaborg along with Dusty Mays. So we're going to get to that coming up in a little bit here on the Michigan insider on the big 1050 WTK online at the big 1050.com. So the men are in Chicago. The women traveled to Fort Worth, Texas yesterday. And it is a huge basketball weekend. We'll spend most of our day talking basketball here on the Michigan insider on the big 1050 WTK online at the big 1050. Including with our guest, Johnny Bacon, who's going to join us a little early. He has a scheduling conflict. He has a speech that he's giving to 9 o'clock hours. So he'll join us at around 805 this morning here on the Michigan insider on the big 1050 WTK online

2:07at the big 1050.com. So obviously yesterday was or last night was all about it was all about basketball last night. But during the day yesterday, it was all about baseball. And it was the opening, it was opening day across baseball. The Tigers had their opener out in San Diego. And as a pretty good result, Tigers jumped out early, scored four runs in the first, added a pair of runs in the third, a pair more in the fifth, and got to talk about the rookie. Kevin McGonical, four for five with a couple of doubles, a couple of runs batted in, a couple of runs scored. And yeah, he was raking yesterday, it was nice to see him get off the get off to a great start. A cool key. He's had a couple of hits. Glybert Torres had a hit in the game yesterday. Torque had a hit in the game yesterday with a couple of runs scored. You also had Dylan Dingler hit a home run yesterday. He went two for five with three runs batted in. And then Parker Meadows had a couple of RBI's in there as well.

3:07Tigers' bats were alive and kicking for the for the first game of the season. He got after early and often yesterday to put those eight on the board. And Terry Scoobull had a very solid opening outing yesterday. He did give up one run in his six innings, but it was an under and run. He had three hits, no walks, six strikeouts. That was over six innings of work. And then the bullpen came in. Anderson was the one. Drew Anderson came in. He struggled. He gave up a run on two hits in an inning and a third. Had a couple of walks in there as well. But then Holton Vest came in for an inning and two thirds combined to go scoreless in that stretch. Tigers win eight to first game a success. And most of the conversations I'm sure if you were talking Tigers baseball yesterday with your friends, if you were exchanging texts, I know our text chain that gets into baseball, especially this time of year, that text exchange was all about Kevin McGonigal yesterday and the excitement that there is for him. And again, just just the first game playing third base for the for the Tigers yesterday.

4:11But pretty, pretty good debut, pretty, pretty, pretty good major league debut for the rookie yesterday for the for the Tigers. Game two of the series is coming up later on tonight. It's 940 Eastern time. You'll hear that game starting at 915 here on the big 1050 WTK. Tonight we have Michigan hockey on the big 1050 WTK and Tigers baseball on the big 1050 WTK tonight. March Madness coverage. Well, the men's basketball game is on 102.9 W4 country over on the FM dial. The remainder of March Madness covers tonight is on 1290 WLBY. We've got sports all over the radio tonight because there's a lot going on. Of course, huge Michigan hockey game coming up tonight at 530 in Albany in the regional semi-final against Bentley. And again, that game will be here starting at 5 o'clock here on the big 1050 WTK. But the Tigers tonight, Framber Valdez is going to make his Tigers debut. We'll see how he does late night tonight, you know, kind of keep an eye on that. We'll be done with tie with we should be done with Michigan with the Michigan game tonight.

5:12And if all goes according to plan, then we should be able to maybe put an eye on the Tigers game late night tonight at the towards the conclusion of some of the basketball coverage. I know most of our attention tonight is going to be on basketball. Of course, Michigan, Alabama is at 735, but it is a huge night in basketball. It's a huge weekend in basketball. It started last night. What a great opening pair of games. The night cap game is last night. We're not great necessarily. Illinois wins against Houston. Houston's offense at times can be really anemic. And we saw that in the game last night with Houston losing at home, essentially. Illinois wins that game, Brett Underwood, his second elite eight in three years. And if he can get over the hurdle, if he can get that, get over the hump and get to a final four, he's going to be able to put that notch in his belt and take one of the, you know, take one of the things that's kind of holding him back when it comes to conversations. I mean, we talked about it yesterday. And it was his name came up on one of the lists for North Carolina. And Sam's like, well, what has he done? And the answer is he's been to one elite eight now too. And if he can get to the final four and get over to that home.

6:14Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers, keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner, navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most. It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Healthcare. That makes O'Reilly stand apart. The professional parts people.

7:17Hi, I'm Adam Devine, Chief Fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network. No, no, no, no, I said more fun! What I was a kid at Children's Miracle Network Hospital helped me get back on my feet, literally. So trust me when I say that these places are just hospitals. They are up factories. Children's Miracle Network is hospitals, programs, partners, and donors like you. Join us in making big change for all kids. Visit us online at cmn.org. Then, yeah, the conversation around bread underwood will probably change a little bit if he can get over that hump. But he got the win over Houston last night. 65, 55, they advance to the regional final. That's in the south. In the west, Arizona took care of business over Arkansas. And they won going away 109-88 to set up their regional finals against the teams that won the early games last night, which were both thrilling, thrilling basketball games. Now, the first one was Purdue, Texas. Purdue wins the game on a tap-in by Trey Kaufman-Ren with 0.7 seconds to go.

8:21Purdue, Texas gave Purdue everything they could handle. Texas is limping all over the place. They got one guy rolling his ankle and playing on the rolled ankle. Another guy playing on a broken foot. They were hobbing all over the place and they gave Purdue everything they could handle. But the two seed does advance. Trey Kaufman-Ren, Texas, late in the game, decides because of free-throw shooting and defensive purposes, they go smaller. And it ended up where it probably allowed them to defend the play that lit up to the put back. Probably pretty well. And Braith and Smith doesn't get a really clean luck. He does get towards the lane. But it's not a super clean look. And the ball doesn't go in. But because they're now in a smaller lineup, they don't have quite the amount of rebounding on the floor. And Purdue gets the put back by Trey Kaufman-Ren with 0.7 to go and they win the game. So that was a terrific game. Purdue is going to play Arizona coming up tomorrow. That game is at 8.49 Eastern time. And then the other game last night, the first game of the two games was Iowa beating the Nebraska. 77, 71, another upset by the Iowa Hawkeyes.

9:24They just keep on rolling. Nebraska's first ever trip to the NCAA tournament ends in the sweet 16. And Iowa just, they just keep on going. And last night, Sturtz much better. Still not great. Only three of nine from Long Range, but much better. But man, Sage was really good last night for them. He had 19 and eight. He was awesome last night. And somehow in Nebraska, late in the game, had a set where they only had four players on the floor defensively. Giving up a huge basket late and then free-throws and not making shots. The game was actually a little bit closer than that right towards the end. But it was another thrilling basketball game. Both of those games, the first two games last night in college basketball were awesome, awesome games. And obviously, one of the teams in the in the South region was going to be a big 10 team advancing. It's Iowa. And then in the West region in that first game, it's another big 10 team advancing in Purdue. And then of course, you've Illinois advancing in the South as well. So three of the four winners last night were from the big 10. Two of the four winners last night were from the Clark household.

10:26And so I could imagine that the big 10 office is pretty excited right now because you have, well, with Illinois going against Iowa in the South, you're guaranteed a big 10 team in the final four. And with Purdue going against Arizona, you give yourself a shot at another big 10 team going to the final four. And then of course, you have the games tonight where you have a couple more big 10 teams that are in action, headline locally, of course, by our squad Michigan playing Alabama at 735. But the nightcap in DC is Yukon Michigan State. They say 945. I assume it's going to be a little bit later than that. But that is the second game in DC. So an opportunity again for the big 10 conference to continue to make their mark on this tournament. We talked about it all year. The big 10 has been the best conference all season long. And it would make sense to have multiple big 10 teams in the final four. And in theory, it could be four. It's not going to be four. But in theory, it's still mathematically, it still could, it still could be four. But we're hoping, well, obviously we're hoping for at least two

11:27because you know that either Iowa or Illinois is going to be in the final four. And you got to imagine Brett, under was like, I already beat Frank McCaffrey in this tournament. And now I've got to beat Iowa in this tournament. And for Illinois and Iowa, obviously, it's they're rematching from earlier in the season. But it's been a long time. They played on January 11th in Iowa City. And Illinois won that one. 75 69 fairly close game. When all said and done, we're going back a long way into the season. The last time those two teams met. And they'll be playing tomorrow at 609 tonight. Michigan, Alabama. The Murray Burnett against his former squad. The Michigan Wolverines against and Dusty May against his friend, Nate Oates. Dusty's got a lot of friends in the business, apparently. But they're not friends once that ball gets tipped. And I'm looking forward to this match up tonight. We had a preview of the game from three basketball players. Traimakini, riding Yale, Jr. and Yaksal Lendaborg. They were at the podium yesterday. Dusty May was at the podium yesterday as well. So we're going to hear from those guys coming up in a little bit here.

12:29On the Michigan insider on the Big 10 50 WTK. A on line at the Big 10 50 dot com.