A Numbers Game | March 23, 2026 | Hour 2

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1:01The numbers told the story to always do. Swindles, idiots who believe in analytics. This is a numbers game with Kill, I like Xander. Gone, V-Syn. Our number two of a numbers game at V-Syn, these sports betting network, V-Syn.com, Game Plus, I-Hard, Radio, YouTube, TV, of course, Series X of Channel 158. Kill, I like Xander. Kelly Bill and producer number nine, so much more than a producer. How you doing, man? I'm doing great. Do you like my little Iverson, Radon, off the side there? Not a sport. It's, again, this is part of the V-Syn Plus, Plus, Plus subscription. We can't really talk about it on air, but one of these days, some things Kelly gets upset about. Subs. Not a sport, Bill. Not a sport. We get tweet speed in the book, Shooter, but Gamlin. I thought it was crazy that the officials stopped the clock after Iowa made that three pointer with four seconds left. Florida didn't have a time out. March, Matt, this only kind of guide is this happen often. They reset the clock, right, to give them some more time. Hey, there was something going on there. I didn't catch it exactly.

2:02The tweet spot on though is like, and see a tournament I never see, the clock is constantly changing. You know, they go to a time out and it's like, yeah, let's throw like 1.7 back on there. I thought the officiating generally was pretty bad. Like in some of these games, I thought it was swayed to one side, more than that. Yes. The Kentucky Santa Clara finish was the one that most people had trouble with in terms of, oh, the official should have seen that Sunday was calling the time out. And the clock didn't start as soon as it should have with 2.4 seconds, Lover, 2.6, whatever Kentucky before the, before the Otego away, three pointer to tie the game to send it in overtime. I disagree with both of those points. One, I've seen way worse in terms of the clock starting. I didn't think it stopped. I didn't think it started late at all. Winnoe got the ball. And then two, Semicon can say he was calling time out as vociferously as he wants. But the official has to have the eyes locked on the game.

3:03So I don't, I didn't have a problem with that either. There was a couple of people, you know, in the Twitter sphere, not not only Twitter, but like TikTok and Instagram. There's this whole cottage industry of people who always want to say it's all fixed. Like no, it's not. The time out thing has been a, look, that's an issue since the beginning of basketball. Right. Don't even just basketball. We talk about it with football all the time too. You've got to get the officials attention, right? Like it's got to be seen. So that happened a few times this week and it felt like, you're just running down the court trying to get a time out. Fire, Jerry Jones, WNBA expert says, as much as I want St. John's to win, I feel Zuby will have two fouls called in him in the first five minutes. Some people think Duke gets a lot of calls, Jim James sought. Hey, great seeing you again, James sought in your, in your buddies on Thursday. He says, well, since we talk post show Thursday, Ega loses and now has to get, now has to let go her coach, not sure that this is the move, but hopefully a step back to being the queen of clay. Oh, I mean, we, I, listen, as I've talked about something going on between the years,

4:05she has finally admitted something's going on between the years. I don't think there's any question about that. And then she could, as you said, she could come back and she could win the French Open and all will be forgotten. The coach thing is not official yet, right, though, right? Is that just a rumor about Wim? We'll see the numbers, guys, what a tournament Miami Alcoraz out for a second straight journey as well. The numbers, guys, Greg has time for double duty. I get tired just hearing his words permitted spoken. Well, he sees, he has a lot on his mind. Oh, it's wild. You're not speeding him up on podcast form. Linda Cartia, good morning, Jens. I had to make sure my hay was in the barn. For example, I made my bets first. Then I definitely let Mr. Bill know your name was appearing as Jonathan Davis, great show as always. Thank you, Linda. It's very kind of you. You know, we do as an annual tradition here before we get to country clubbing. Annual tradition here on the show, Kelly, is that after the first week of March madness, I talk about the most annoying commercials and the most ridiculous and answer things. Oh, yes. I was going through most of the weekend.

5:05I was like, I don't think I'm gonna have many much for either of these. Heh, then, oh, the announcer certainly came through. Well, you just got to let the game settle down a little bit, right? Let's not wrap it. Let the whole weekend go. And as far as the commercials, I wasn't nearly as annoyed. Like, there was no, there was no shit home grin, shake, guilt, just Alexander, Jalen Williams level, annoying commercials that there have been in years past. I've got one for you. I've got one. Okay. What's yours? Oh, I was gonna text us to you and Todd and then I forgot. Like, we went on the whole cottage cheese thing, you know, a few weeks ago, right? Only daisy cottage cheese will do, Kelly. So what's with, you know what's also confusing? Is there sour cream like commercial? Like, there's just how many sour cream options are there? It's the same thing. Daisy just goes back and forth between the cottage cheese and the sour cream. Sour cream that beloved by people, I guess. Well, okay, one, one, a little bit that, right? And two, I just, I can't name that many brands, Daisy. Like, you're the only one. You've got it. You've got it owned. Most annoying commercials based on, I think also not only

6:06annoyance, but number of times they were shown over the weekend. The boozer brothers. Yeah. Now you see it now you don't, now you see it now you don't. That one where Cam, Cam boozer says to his dad, it says to his dad, I got you, bro. That was interesting. Yeah. Carlos looking like the, wasn't there another one? Let's ask dad. There was another. Oh, I feel like there was multiple. Yeah. There's multiple boozers. And then the, the Hannah burner buffalo wild wings with, with, of course, a Beck Bennett voicing the buffalo in the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial goes, is this the podcast? Absolutely it is. Let's get vulnerable. She says, um, I don't know my parents and he's like, oh, no, no, no, no, not about that. Not about you about the pick six meal for two. That one. That was kind of annoying. But the commercials didn't really annoy me. Who, who is that person that's in that commercial? She is Hannah Burner. She was, I think she was on one of these reality shows and she does a very popular podcast called the gig. I figured it was something like that. Kindly squat, I believe, with a guy. I have no idea who this is.

7:07All right. Announcers though. Announcers always come through. Matt Hill for his annual milk toast, no, no real particular comment. I just want to say this about Graham Hill never says that lovely man. I'm sure never says anything that you remember. And now has adopted. Have you noticed this? He's adopted the bill, Raftery inflection. So he does the whole great cut, great pass, great finish. You know, Raftery has that kind of thing that he does, but it's the Raftery voice. Hill now has the same kind of thing. And then he got done in the Vanderbilt game against the Brasco and Vanderbilt went up 56, 53. He goes and Nebraska has their first lead, just a mistake. There was a graphic during the Miami game yesterday, zero points in the last one minute and five seconds. That seemed unnecessary. This is from especially when you get plenty of good ones, those whether it's like zero points, the last seven of three, because that happens. Spiro Davis with his normal inability to monitor his excitement level based on the time

8:07of game. Look at this in the Purdue game. Look at Smith, just a masterclass, the basketball myestro gets them out of the chairs here in St. Louis 1612 Purdue over Miami. It's like, okay. And then the whole weekend was waiting for Steve Lapis to show up. Steve Lapis in the last minute of the Virginia Tennessee game had a tour to force of what are you talking about with with 40 seconds left, 73 71 Tennessee or Virginia, Virginia ball, 40 seconds left. They're down to finals, 40 seconds. He goes, work as long as you have to to get a good one here, that's the first thing. Then with 11 seconds left, 77 71 Tennessee, Virginia, Gillespie of Tennessee commits a foul. He goes, that is the one thing you could not, well, it's not the one thing. It's one of the two things you couldn't do. You couldn't give up a three and you couldn't foul that quickly. Actually it's not that big of a calamity that he felt there at all. And then the final one, later down 77 72 with 9.8 seconds left, UVA ball.

9:12He goes, would you like to have a three here? Absolutely. But it's not the end of the world if you get a quick two, either way you're going to need another basket. Well, it's not the end of the world, Steve, but it might have been the end of the game if you got it too. We're that way. That's great. There was others, Dan Bonner. That's probably the best. We'll leave it out. Oh, man. I, I, I, I, one word commercial thought. Are you through those great list? I'm so glad you do that every, every year we, we caught a good one. What was that Thursday strategy here? Is you got to steal the ball and then you can foul. That's right. You need to. Who was that? I don't remember. I don't remember. The one I got to give a shout out to a company that I've crushed before for their commercials. Uh huh. Capital one. Back at it as they usually are with like five new sets of commercials, but what if they stopped guilt or at least I haven't caught it? Jennifer Gardner is now only claiming to own and operate a small, a, a small company instead of you might remember me from my other job. Yeah. I didn't bring that up anymore. She didn't bring that up anymore because nobody remembers you from your other job, Jennifer Gardner, because you haven't been in anything like 10 years.

10:15That commercial was awkward for like six years. You might know me from my other job. I like, I worked, I worked with someone in Florida. Never forget this. Photon. He was, he was like mid 20s at times like 10 years ago. He's like, who's that? He had no idea who she was. Yeah. I mean, I barely remember who she was. I know. She was like big on ale. What was that show she was? She was alien. What was that show? Yeah. That was our burger hits. That was our big show. And then after that, what'd you do? She was in dude. Where's my car? Oh, sure. She was remembering that. Oh, my gosh. Also, how old do you think Jennifer Gardner is taking us? She's got to be like late 40s, maybe 53. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I would have guessed mid 20s. Yeah. Okay. By the way, some trends that also continued during March, that, you know, again, isn't going to happen. I have thought all number one seeds, but based on the bracket, I filled out in the Megapod. All four number one seeds would reach the, have only reached the final four twice, 2008, and then last year, 2025, Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston, that will not happen, obviously, with Florida's loss yesterday.

11:16Alias. Alias, not Alias, pardon me. First four teams have reached the final four twice, VCU in 2011, UCLA in 2021, Texas, still trying to be the third in that group. It looked pretty good. Yeah, they do. Top four seed has lost in the first round in 15 of the last 17 tournaments. Well, guess what? Now it's 15 of the last 18, two years in a row, it didn't happen. At least one double digit seed has reached the sweet 16s in 2008. Last year, it barely survived with Arkansas as a 10 seed. This year, it barely survived with Texas as an 11 seed, but that streak is alive. Double digit seed getting to the sweet 16, only one the last two years. I mentioned the first four team stuff to the final four, which Texas is trying to be the third team. First four team has reached the round of 32. Now 13 of the last 15 years, Texas being another one. VCU was also a double digit seed, I was with high point. And then the last team to win a title in a home state,

12:18UCLA in 1975, when they wanted in San Diego, Indiana is where the final four is this year, Purdue still alive, trying to be the first since UCLA in 1975 to win it in their home state. And no team has three-peated since UCLA. That will begin, that will continue, I should say, as Florida tried to get their second of three anyway towards a three-peat. What are you smiling at? Best Fesick text ever. Oh, I gotta see this. On the other side! Coming back, Wes Reynolds, Fesick's text, on the other side as well. Coming back. You're here because you want an edge. That's what separates listeners from winners, but let's be real, mindset alone doesn't get bets home. Pros win because they've got the tools, the data, and the discipline. And now so can you. VCU programs you access to the same real time insights the sharps use, no secrets, no fluff, just actionable info that moves markets. Tap the link and see why serious bettors are turning knowledge into profit, with VCU in Pro. Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments

13:21in sports. And nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching, we're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team. Comcast, proud partner of Team USA. It's tournament time, and this March, the Atlantic Sports Book has 10 times the rewards. Starting Round 1, we're giving you 10 profit boosts, every single tournament game day. That's over 100 chances to level up your winning. Plus, don't let your fan cash on your bets, which you can use on anything at Fanatics. Which all can team gear, take its collectibles, and a whole lot more. At Fanatics Sports Book, must be 21 plus. Gamble & Problem Call, win 100 gambler, 1-800-myreset. CT Call, 88-8-789-7777-M-A-CALL, 800-375-050, and Y-Call, 877-8-HOP-NY, MD-Visit, MD-Gambling-HELP-DOT-OR, Offer Not-Available in All-Stage,

14:46wherever you want to go, Profit X covers it. And every 10 additional wins earns you another shot. It's simple, download the app, use code VisonMM as in March, Madison. Start winning King of March only on Profit X. We were saying all the last couple of weeks we were talking about the Profit X sponsorship here in this King of March contest. You can go anywhere in the world. We were amazed by that. But it's the, what we failed to mention is, you hit $10,000, you're entered for a $10,000 trip. So it'll care where you go. It's just a $10,000 trip. So if you wanted to go to the seashells, let's say, you might be able to go for like two days and then you have to come back as $10,000. That's a good point. Yeah, okay. I could get a lot, I could get a lot more bang for my buck. That's good. If I went to like Wisconsin or something like that. That's correct. Think you'd choose Wisconsin? Wisconsin? Hey, Wisconsin's beautiful. It's lovely this time, man. Oh, we get tweet speed in the book, Steve Groenwald. What do you think of Michigan State's chances at this point, especially with Jeremy Fears playing so well as he did last few days? He just set the smart and record with 16 assists versus Louisville.

15:46Could you see a Michigan State Michigan game for the nadi go green? I'm not predicting it, but would it be the most shocking thing in the world? No, there is overs as Michigan. I would not be the most shocking thing in the world. Dr. Van Nostrad beers Jeremiah Fears, older brother. Things Kelly learned over the first rounds of the NCAA tournament. I was like, they got to be related and that wasn't expecting the older brother, though. Dr. Van Nostrad, hi, Gill and Kelly, I can't be the only one that when I take an under, I'm constantly staring at the clock and realizing that the refs botched the clock at least 50 times. Oh, Michael Burns bill rafter is a treasure. That is all he is. Does anybody notice that Grand Hill thing where you do you stolen his inflection? Uh, I will be watching out for it. It's like, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Which is how rafter he says almost everything and Grand Hill only talks like that now. Not old. That's interesting. I'm gonna keep an eye on that one. Oh, and one of the trends that we didn't talk about this last segment that has continued. Chris Velika had tweeted this as well.

16:48Gators add to this historical note with their loss to Iowa. Only one defending champ since 2007 has advanced past the sweet 16. Wow. Of course you con right in the back-to-back the second year would be the exception to that. Thank you, thank you to Anthony Ventresca for letting us know about that. Wes Reynolds joins us now courtesy of the progressive guest line. Disawks and college hoops and some golf. You can follow him on Twitter. Wes Reynolds won. That's the number one. Wes, good morning, sir. Good morning, Gil. Uh, the, so let's start with the golf first. Let's get that out of the way. You did not have Matt Fitzpatrick. I did not. The gentleman next to you did. Congratulations to him. I've been chasing him. I think we both been chasing him all spring. And you know, when he lost at the players, I feel like it's so hard to get back, you know, get back going. It's like in any other sport. When you, when you lose a game that you should have won, sometimes you lose that next game.

17:49And that's why I didn't go back to him. And, and, and it's really been an opposite. So far this year like Jacob Bridgman, uh, you know, had a bad run at Pebble Beach at the end when he was in contention. And then he wins the very next week at the Genesis and Matt Fitzpatrick, a tournament at the players that he probably should have gotten home didn't get home and then he wins the very next week. So usually you don't see that happen, but it's becoming more regular than it has in the past. You have not added any masters bets since the last time we spoke? Wes, you're kind of, yeah, not, not yet. And you know, just kind of a lot of it is timing. And I, I think at this point, you're getting so close to the event that the numbers are kind of going to be what they are, especially with the top-end players, because these have been up since like last fall, last win. In terms of a future's board, and obviously they move based on each week's results. So no, I haven't added anything as of yet. I did add a small, uh, Fitzpatrick at 35 to one yesterday

18:51during the round. I think what Wes just said, those are very important point. Hey, wasn't anything I was going to bet big at this point. These numbers are going to be pretty close. Uh, honestly, might be worse than what you get weak of the master. So I think at this point, if you haven't really made any bets, I'd probably sit tight too. Let's go to college basketball, Wes, the madness, um, did live up to the hype. Well, I think we all kind of said, or at least we did here, uh, it's probably going to be a year with, going to be a year with very few upsets. That's going to affect your bracket ups, or your upset rewarded brackets. It's going to, it's going to affect your survivor pools. Um, let's start with a question I asked of Greg earlier. I'll ask of you, which is, did anything massively surprise you here in the first weekend of, of the big dance? You know, not, not particularly. Uh, I think that we knew that we weren't going to get that, that low major probably advancing. And, and that's, I think maybe the one thing in this tournament that we lack, we don't have a true Cinderella. We have one double digit seed and it's Texas for God's sakes.

19:51Yeah. You know, it's not some, it's not some small school. And that's the one thing we missed. But I think we've had some good games and we've had some upsets. Uh, obviously what happened with, uh, with Florida last night, but you want to look at Iowa. And I think Iowa, Iowa is very similar to my alma mater, Indiana and Kurt Signetti's first year. And they have roster continuity. We're, uh, Ben McCollum brought, I believe six players with him from Drake that were in his program, but that by the way, won an NCAA tournament game last year. So they weren't total green horns being in the NCAA tournament. Like they weren't going to, I think buckle under the pressure or working to have any fear. And they certainly didn't show it last night. And, you know, it's the same as SIG had with James Madison when he had like 13 players come with him in Indiana. So Iowa, I mean, I guess you're surprised that they pulled the upset, but not surprised that it was a competitive game. And, you know, now Iowa is in the sweet 16. And they're playing a team that don't, that doesn't add athlete them. They're playing Nebraska,

20:52who split the season series with them. So, you know, Iowa absolutely is, I think very live to at least get to the elite eight before maybe they find a team that's going to add athlete them. But, you know, nothing really, I think, I think shocking here. You kind of felt maybe one number one was going to get got and it was Florida, who I thought just, that's a tough matchup in the second round to play. One of those teams, either Iowa or Clemson, that's just going to grind you down to a halt and keep that score in the low 70s. And that's what the Hawkeyes did. If I went outside the formula, Duke, Arizona, Michigan and Houston, being the four that qualified to win it all now with Florida's absence. And now I say to you, hey, Wes, guess what? One of those four did not win the championship. The team that won it is? I would say Arkansas. And I know they got a test against high point on Saturday night in the second round, didn't really get away from them to like the final two minutes of the game, but the NCAA tournament is always about guards.

21:53And I think Arkansas has the best guard in the NCAA tournament, Darius A. Cuff. And he's one of the, they're one of the few teams, Houston, I think, being another with another freshman, Kingston Flemmins, where you have a guard that can take over the game, where you have a guard that can call his own number like five straight possessions down the stretch. And Arkansas has that with Darius A. Cuff, being a three level score, can shoot the three, can get to the rim, can get to the line. So that's what I think makes them dangerous. Like he basically carried them down the stretch and the other guys just had to defend and rebound. And that makes Arkansas, I think very dangerous here. So I think that Arkansas Arizona game, I thought that that number came out a little bit high. Look, Arizona deserves a lot of respect, but I saw even some nine and a half out there and against a dangerous guard like A. Cuff, I thought that was too high. Before we move on to some of the other games, because I do want to get to all your thoughts on these. But since you bring that up on A. Cuff, because we were talking earlier about the number one pick in the draft, Darren Peterson looking non-number one pick in the drafty

22:56over the weekend here. And for those betters who are like, oh, I don't know, A. Cuff at these really long numbers, do you really think a team will pick him on it? We were talking in our text, Kelly and me with Monasano over the weekend. You know, I was bringing up the pack, point guards are tough, right? If they're not Iverson or John Wall or Derek Rose status, right? Then it's like for every Cade Cunningham, there's a Markelle Fulzer, a Ben Simmons kind of thing. Doesn't that alone make team sort of reticent to go with a point guard like A. Cuff first? Well, I think it does. And also the fact of who's gonna get the ping-pong balls. You know, I'm hoping it's my Indiana Pacers and if the Indiana Pacers get him, well, it's like, are you gonna draft a ball dominant guard when you have a ball dominant guard in Tyree's Hallibur? So that kind of makes it like, well, maybe we got to look elsewhere. Maybe we got to look at the Bonsa or maybe we got to look at Campbell's or somebody like that. It's a different position. So I think that all depends.

23:58And you know, size is always gonna matter, even in this pace and space basketball where you're gonna wanna find a big guy more often than not. Unless he is in just a pure elite score, you're gonna favor like the big guys and the wings over the guards with the number one pick. And just even positional size at the guard position. If you become such a big thing in the NBA, bigger guards needing those. And the two criticisms I've heard on A. Cuff for the NBA level, just the size. And then I saw someone tweet this weekend that they had heard from an NBA front office that A. Cuff could be the worst defender in the NBA next season. Well, on the size A, I'm, this is obviously an extreme in a ridiculous example. The worst defender. But I remember when I was, I remember when the bullets drafted Mugsy Boggs and I remember my buddy Neville who happens to be Michael Wilbaugh's best friend Neville. I remember him saying, what are you going? Mugsy, you imagine when Magic posts him up? Like, you know, and so there's a little bit of that, right? With the, with a smaller size guard, no matter what.

24:58We'll get Wes's thoughts on the sweet 16, all of his bets besides the one that he just hinted at right there. It's a numbers game on the other side. Right here at Veecent, the sports betting network. A numbers game on Veecent, the sports betting network. The sweet 16 was set in the road to the final four continues. Give yourself the edge of this tournament season. With Veecent's hoops mania special, get Veecent pro access through May 1st for just $2,9999. With Veecent pro, you'll get daily best bets, real time betting splits from Draft Kings and Circa. AI powered prop tools and matchup analysis plus 24-7 video and show replays on the Veecent watch app. And every game is previewed on Veecent.com with best bets, matchup breakdowns, and betting trends. From our experts, sign them now with Veecent.com slash subscribe. That's VSIN. Dotcom slash subscribe. We get tweets of beauty to book. Sorry, a couple here this from Shrek. McVee who says anywhere I can get a line on cocoa double faults today. Oh, what's going on? Still not resolved. I don't know if anybody puts that up.

26:01Well, I know somebody does. But I don't know how rampantly those are put up. But yes, cocoa we can always, when in a fate of cocoa, we always count on a handful of double faults, if not more. Fred Leonard's, when the Gillespie Kid fouled up six with 11 seconds left, that was the correct play, made far more humorous by the fact that neither Rick Barnes, Gillespie, nor Steve Lapis had any idea that the foul was the correct play for Tennessee. Why don't know if it was the correct play? Let's, again, reset because I was going through the Steve Lapis comments in the last minute of Tennessee, Virginia. Tennessee's up six, 11 seconds left, and they foul. And Steve Lapis loses his mind, so does Rick Barnes. Steve Lapis says, that's one of the two worst things you can do, right? It, I don't know if it's the correct play, Fred, but it's certainly not a calamity. In other words, it's really the same kind of logic of being up three in fouling, right? Oh, now you're up six in your fouling, so it's really not a bad play. I don't know if it's the correct play, you could still, you could certainly play it out with no problem either,

27:02and hope he misses, and even if he makes it, you can still then extend the game and then employ strategy, but it's, there's certainly nothing wrong with that play. The other thing that happened yesterday, just sort of strategic wise, that Steve Fezick lost, by the way, Steve Fezick's text earlier, we didn't, we didn't know that was what it was. We never know what's going to get Fezick's, Fezick's all riled up, but apparently the Jennifer Garner slander was too much for him. Kelly, Jennifer Garner's awesome. She's a nice girl. That's a, that's a tribute to the group exchange. He's a nice girl. And, but Fezick was, he was all up in arms and Twitter. I don't know if you know this, but he gets up in arms and Twitter. Oh, no, he's very calm. Yeah. Because Kansas in the closing sequence again, St. John's had four fouls to give, right? St. John's had the basketball tie game, four fouls to give. This is before Darling eventually puts it in the hole for the St. John's win. And Fezick had a problem because,

28:04because Kansas used all those fouls with over six, the last one was with over six seconds left. And he was just losing his mind. Like this was the worst thing ever. And again, just like with the, the Gillespie foul, I don't think it's like, I think I just think people have it wrong with this. I get it. Ideally, right? Ideally, Steve is directionally correct, right? Directionally correct. Ideally, you would like that last valve to be with around three or four seconds left as opposed to six plus seconds left. But as with everything I believe with Fezick and I say this to his face, so I don't feel like I'm talking out of turn, as with everything that he says, he's way too absolute on this stuff. Because if you do wait another couple seconds, right? And they further matriculate the ball down the court, if you will. And then they hoist a shot and they get fouled in the, in the moat in motion, then you're screaming about the other side, right? Oh my God, how could you not foul before they were in the motion of a shot? So I'm just saying, I get it. It wasn't perfectly executed, but I don't think it was the end of the world either. Just my opinion. Wes Reynolds, kind enough to join us again

29:05for a second segment. Wes, did you see it that way? Or did you think it was a complete botch by Kansas? I don't know if it was a botch necessarily. I think maybe that last foul to give, which would have been your sixth foul, you maybe would have liked to have not given it in the back court. Given the front court, kind of maybe try to get an idea of what a team is gonna run here. And then obviously they have the fewest seconds possible to get some kind of possession or some kind of playoff. So yeah, like you had to give a couple right away in the back court, but then once you got to, okay, we got to give the sixth foul. Let's see how they're moving off the ball. Let's see what they're doing and then give the foul immediately on the end bounds where there's fewer seconds. So I don't know if it was a botch. Maybe they could have played it better, but darling just made a layoff. You know, things happen in games. So I don't think they played it totally wrong. They maybe could have played it a little bit of a different way when they gave that last foul. But, you know, I don't think they necessarily

30:06blew the game in that regard. I agree completely with all of that. I think it could have been done better, but it's, again, it's not, was it this calamity that we like to make it out to be? I don't think it was. You know what? Let me, if I can interject something, Gil, because you did that conversation we were talking about with the Iowa Florida game earlier. Todd Golden actually wanted to foul up two yesterday, but didn't want to fed, you know, was trying not to foul skirts, wanted to make kind of one of the role players or maybe the third or fourth options make free throws in a pressure situation, because, and even if he does, Florida does get the ball back. And on the last possession and regulation, and I'd never really heard that, because of course we have the debate of, you know, absolute always foul up three, and I'm not an always anything. Like, I don't deal in absolutes. Like, there are more times often than not, I think you want to foul up three, but it depends on the time of the clock, it depends on the shooters you're playing, but I had never heard necessarily foul up two, and that's what the Florida coach Golden, I think wanted to do,

31:06but, you know, they got skirts and skirts made the foul shots and starts as like 84%, but they were trying to foul a role player there late, so I had never really heard anybody try to do that. I was surprised when I learned that this morning, by the way, from Kelly to here sitting to my left, I actually think Todd Golden is a great coach. I know a lot of people like to, now that they're out, like to sort of retroactively knock on him, but I think his ideas are typically good. I just, whatever the idea was, the way that they ended up defending that last sequence, right, we're like, the guy, you know, they were already, there were three defenders behind the play in a blink of an eye, you know, it's like, oh, dude, what are you doing with the covering the in-bounds passer and then just having on us, just while catching the ball, it was already like, oh, we can get any shot we want now, and they did. Fulgaris was absolutely wide open there in the corner, and, you know, because skirts and credit skirts, and that's the byproduct of Iowa being so familiar,

32:07skirts is played with Ben McCollum. Now I believe at three different schools, because he was at division two at Northwest Missouri State, and then was at Drake, and then was at Iowa. So that roster continuity, even in this era of NIL and portal and all that, you still got to have some experience, like unless you're Rick Patino, or he's like, I'm not messing with the high school kids. This is all portal every single year. He's in his mid-7, easy don't want to go in high school gyms and recruit these guys. So this is all portal, but with most teams, you got to have a mix of portal, and you got to have roster continuity, and you got to have guys that play multiple years in your program. And I think Iowa is really a byproduct of that. Well, let's get to the sweet 16. You alluded to one pick, let's say if you could recap again, what your pick was from the last segment, and then what else do you like? Yeah, I'll be on Arkansas here. I think that, you know, when you have a guard, that is that good of a score in A-Cuff. Now, Arkansas's defense can be a little shaky,

33:08and I think Arizona's certainly the better defensive team, but Arkansas's not out-afflated here, and that's now that we're in the nitty-gritty. Now that we're essentially like in the playoff, I made that Iowa Indiana football analogy earlier, we're essentially in like the playoff now, where we're in the sweet 16. And now that you're in that, it's all about, you know, who's got some better dudes, coaching certainly matters, but it's about, you know, the Jimmy's and Joe's, as opposed to the X's and O's in a lot of scenarios. And Arkansas's got as many as Arizona's, so I thought that that number was high. I mentioned Iowa, I took it a better number, there's still some two out there, but Iowa is an underdog, I'm gonna keep Rod and Ben McCollum here with this team against Nebraska, that I think is a coin flip game, and I think it's priced as such, even though Iowa's a nine Nebraska's a four, they both split the season series home and home, so that is one I certainly already have in pocket, and also one more, St. John's Duke under, and there's some 143 out there, 142.

34:10And you saw it with that St. John's Kansas game, it's got off to that real hot start, and then all of a sudden that really went to a crawl because of the pressure, and because of, you know, forcing turnovers and whatnot, and St. John's was really able to get Kansas kind of out of kilter, and now they're playing against the best defensive team, though, and Duke who got and gone, but back. Remember what they did to TCU on Saturday, TCU? They kind of shut the water, speak it off on TCU, or TCU couldn't score for about 12 or 13 straight possessions seemingly, so defensive battle here under for me. All right, before you go, Coach, you trust the most in a crunch time decision-making situation of the remaining 16, Coach, you trust the least. Coach, I trust the most, I would probably say, you know, you probably I still think got to go with Tom Izzo in terms of trust just because of the experience that they have had, and he's been at it the longest.

35:12Coach, as I would trust the least, I would say, maybe, maybe NATO's, that's another one, like that's the only double digit, that's the only double digit spread by the way right now, and Alabama hit 19 threes last night, that's not gonna work against Michigan. That game got out of hand against Texas Tech, and Texas Tech, who's a good three point shooting team was like four of 25 or something ridiculous. I think Michigan's gonna blow out them out, so I would say NATO, it's because he can't go away from that style. That's the only style that they know, and when that doesn't work, where do you go? So maybe NATO, it's a little bit for me, would be the one that would stand out. Yeah, I think Greg said it well earlier. Either Alabama wins or they lose by a million. Yeah, right, I'll paraphrase. I would have expected the Izzo answer. I don't know that I would predicted NATO's, but I understand the thing in me on that. Wes, always a pleasure, thank you so much. You back guys, thank you. Wes Reynolds, everybody, we'll come back with a little country club on the other side. It's a numbers game. Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports,

36:15and nothing brings us together quite like team USA at the Olympic Winter Games, from NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching, we're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team. Comcast, proud partner of Team USA. This tournament time, in this March, Fanatics Sports Book has 10 times the rewards. Starting round one, we're giving you 10 profit boosts every single tournament game day. That's over 100 chances to level up your winning, plus don't earn fan cash on your bets, which you can use on anything at Fanatics. We're talking team gear, take its collectibles, and a whole lot more. Fanatics Sports Book must be 21 plus. Gamula Problem Call, 100 gambler, 1-800-myreset, CT Call, 88-789-7777, M-A-Call, 800-327-5050, and Y-Call, 877-8-HOPE, and Y-M-D-Visit, M-D-Gambling-Helped Outdoor, offer not available in all states. Terms apply, see Fanatics Sports Book app.

37:16A numbers game on FESET, these sports betting network. A numbers game is brought to you by Profit X. The first week in a March Menace has commenced, and has ended, by the way, Kelly. But you can still earn an entry to become a King of March on Profit X to become a King of March side of her Profit X using Code Vsyn M-M as in March Madness, learn about the King of March on their homepage, and play to become the King. Hit $1,000 in total volume, you were entered for the $5,000 trip. Hit $10,000 in volume, you're entered for the $10,000 trip. We're talking flights, hotels, wherever you wanna go, cover it up to those amounts. It's simple, download Profit X, create your account, use promo code Vsyn M-M, win 10, hit the volume, earn your shot, every additional 10, your hit earns another shot, sign up today with Code Vsyn M-M and compete to become the King of March, only on Profit X. Gill Alexander, Kelly Bidlin, back from his trip in between segments. I don't know where he goes, but he goes and he comes back. It's called El Bonio. El Bonio? All right, good job.

38:17Thanks. Wash my hands, too. Douglas Fleming, Florida committed coaching malpractice. You cannot let the player catch in the inbound pass and strive toward their basket, I agree. Has to be towards the inbound pass. Literally had three defenders behind the ball. The second the pass was caught in a loud eye, would have a three on two. That's what I said. Coach and 40 plus years, and the last thing we tell players in that position is don't get beat over the top. Douglas Fleming, thank you very much. I agree completely with all. Douglas Fleming clearly a basketball coach. He's been coaching for years and years and years. Yeah, that was terrible. Absolutely terrible. The RGB, he says, underdog typically offers double fault lines, eight and a half on cocoa today, only offered as an over. You're not allowed to bet the underdog, even though under is in their name. Yeah. So point that out. Montreal Max killed as a match between doubles partners like we have in an hour with Andrava and Maboko as a pick play into your handicapping. It does not because it was almost impossible to quantify that. Montreal Max, but I will say this,

39:17the interesting rise of Victoria Mboko happening at the same time as the decline, if you will, of Miran Drava is an interesting under the radar women's tennis sort of narrative going on right now. Not narrative, a storyline, really. And they happen to be double spotters and they happen to be playing today at the Miami Open. Douglas Fleming adds the basketball, who is your second level mile practice, is a full court dribble with limited time to a place on the floor, baseline below the backboard, that is statistically the highest turnover spot on the offensive end of the floor. Douglas is heated about it, and he's right. He's absolutely right. Hey, a couple things here, Kelly. One, we do have a tank of Paloza play today. Yeah, we do learn some. I am never not shocked by that. I don't forget you there. Look at you there. So tank of Paloza is something we have going on in the background here. We're only up a couple units doing this.

40:18Why? Because 33 and three in our tank of Paloza legs is not good enough to be more than two units up or 2.04 units up to be precise. Here are again, the NBA tanking trustworthy tears as I see them of the eight clearly tanking team Chicago Bulls. They're the barely trustworthy one. They beat us two of those three times, by the way. They've lost 20 of 25, but they've won four of their last 10. There is slightly annoying. So they're the barely trustworthy one. As you said, they sort of have a different line about the completely different team from what they were all out five months ago. And the injury report today is shenanigans. Trust worthy, though, not against other tanking teams. I got the grizzles. I got the nets. I got the kings. As you see, they're terrible, except when they play other tankers, then you just can't rely on them at all because they actually will have no problem beating those other tanking teams. And we stay away from those games. Yeah. And then then there's this this category, which is the extremely trustworthy. Am I extremely trustworthy? They mean extremely trustworthy tankers.

41:20The wizards have lost 16 in a row. The Pacers have lost 16 in a row. Oh God, it's just that good. They are great at tanking. The Mavs have lost 22 of 26 and three of those four wins were against other tankers. The jazz have lost 25 of 32. They've got messing around. Yeah, they're messing around. They're messing around. Jazz are flirting with leave in this category. So today, and by the way, we're again, we're six and three doing these, but again, 33 and three on legs, but it doesn't matter if we're 33 and three because those three, it's all that takes to trip us up. Here are the plays we've had so far. The bowls, the bowls, and who knocked us out last week? In that one, I can't remember. But we were like a possession away from winning the first two of these. Today, we got a five-legged Kelly. Oh, we're back in business. That's right. We're trying to go up three units total. This is basically a one-unit play.

42:20You're getting 97 cents on the dollar here. Hawks, magic, rockets, raptors, blazers. Shall I repeat that? Why I think I will. The Atlanta Hawks, the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets, the Toronto Raptors, and the Portland Trail Blazers. Those are the teams that constitute today's five-legged parlay, which, again, pays 97 cents on the dollar if it gets home. The Hawks are taken on the Grizzlies. How many, the Hawks are on fire, by the way? 11 to 12, 12 to 13, something like that. Magic are taken on the 16 losses in a row, Pacers. The rockets are taken on the bowls. Are we a little scared about that one? Raptors are taken on the jazz. Blazers are taken on the Brooklyn Nets. There is one I didn't play against the tanky team. I did not include the Golden State Warriors. I want no part of that one. Yeah, with you, the, I have not bet one yet. I do have magic hawks, rockets, and I have the clippers

43:24written down as a leg tonight too, which would not be, it would not be tanking, although, although the bucks might need to go back in a new category. Gil, because this is who won the great Yannis versus the bucks debate. What do you mean, like version 4.0? He's like, I want to, I want to keep playing. They're doing it again. It was the end of last week. They're, they're currently fighting again. A Yannis wants to play. They don't want him to play. He's, he's injured. There's no upside for Milwaukee to play him. This is kind of where I'm saying they might, especially if they win that fight, they might need to, we might need to put them in their own tier. So I have those ones circled. The only thing I'll point out is this is a, it's a, it's a lengthy injury report today. Orlando, I think it's a great leg. Indiana's got about 17 guys on their injury report right now. No idea what they're going to do with some of them. That's a lot of guys. Memphis looks like they're going to have a lot of guys out. The big ones on the Atlanta side for me, though, Gill, Jaylin Johnson listed his questionable for that game. So I, I'm going to be involved with most of these with you later. I'm just waiting for some of these injuries to get sorted out.

44:25Any other NBA plays for you? I do have one actually one other tonight. I bet the Lakers, man, this Lakers team is just on fire right now. Ten and one over their last 11. They are on, on the road at Detroit tonight. A game that obviously would have been lined very differently a week and a half ago. No Kate Cunningham for the pistons. It's going to be a couple of weeks with him most likely. Right now in the Lakers injury report, he might have been tripped up by this yesterday. Luca had gotten his 16th tech. They thought he's going to be ruled out. That got rescinded. So he will play today. Hachimura, Marcus Smarter questionable right now. It's I don't love seeing that. But right now they're about two point favorites. I put a laid minus 125 on the money line. Still seeing that over at Caesars for the Lakers. Again, 10 and one 9.1 net rating that time. That is the second best in the NBA. They have the eighth best offense, eighth best defense. Meet over that same time period. Since March 3rd, Detroit six and five struggling here without Kate Cunningham.

45:26Five and five and 10 ATS their last 15 games to Detroit is. They were struggling with it before he went out. Danny, can we show those MVP numbers once again? Because we were we were tracking these when we thought, hey, Shay might not get to the qualifying number of games. That's not happening. Shay, Shay is still this massive favor minus 1000 to win MVP. But I did want to just show. Look at where Luca is now. Oh, it's incredible. He's down to 12 to one for what that for whatever it's worth, right? He's down 12 to one. Everybody else now 33 to one are longer. In this Jalen Brown is one game away from qualifying. We can take that off the screen after after the next game he plays. But not that it matters. He's 200 to one. Kate Cunningham will eventually not qualify. Not that it matters. But there you see the games play the games that these guys can still afford to miss. And as I said, just two things I want to say about this. It proves that load management is bull crap because all these guys played when they needed to. And the second part about this Kelly that I didn't want to mention in addition to it proves that load management to me is bull is that.

46:28This 65 game rule is kind of terrible. I said at the beginning about Adam silver that he just David Stern would have figured this out. Adam silver everything he touches. It's never quite right. If Kate Cunningham were seriously up at the top of this list and he became disqualified because the man had a collapse long ago. How is that fair? It's I get it was supposed to combat load management. But you've literally done what it's proven is two things. It's done the opposite of combating load management because it well on the one hand it shows that load management is bunk. So it really just shows that any so on the one hand he is right about that. Let me let me rephrase that. He did he did prove his point about load management. It's tough where it's clearly these guys can play when they want to. But it destroys a bigger principle, which is why should these guys who have legitimate injuries be disqualified? Yes. It just it shouldn't be that. Okay. So a lot of the voters will give Zach Low credit for this. He's been saying this the whole time.

47:29You're basically saying we're not smart enough to decipher through these cases. And what's going to happen with Kate Cunningham, he is not going to make all MBA first team second team. He's not going to qualify for that. And that is ridiculous. And most of the time I believe Kate is going to get lucky with this. Most of the time there is heavy, heavy financial impacts tied into making an all MBA first second team. Anyway, they'll figure it out. Corey Wolt, Adam Burke, coming back on a numbers game. Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports. And nothing brings us together quite like team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Exfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. And team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching, we're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team, Comcast, proud partner of team USA.

48:30Get in the game with the college branded Venmo debit card, wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance, just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit card at Venmo.com slash college card. The Venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank NA select schools available Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo dot me slash stash terms max $100 cash back