BIG 12 SQUAD - March Madness is HERE | Can Kansas WIN IT ALL?

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Water usually wins. It rots wood and tears docks apart, unless you build with treks. Trek's marine grade decking is 100% submersible, built to resist rod and solid and fresh water. Water has met its match. Trek's decking. Visit treks.com slash docks. If you want spring break to feel like, and a moment away from the kids, to feel like, and your reward status to feel like, Thank you for being a Hilton Honors Gold member. Enjoy your daily food and beverage credit. And now that nightcap and the lounge can feel like, it matters where you stay. With Hilton Honors, earn the most valuable gold status faster, and unlock benefits at over 9,000 locations worldwide. Hilton, for this day. The big 12 got 8 in. Is that enough though?

1:00Did they get screwed again? You're talking ball with the big 12 squad. From Oklahoma State to Utah, from Kansas State to BYU, from Houston to Texas Tech, it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming big 12 weekend. Buckle up. It's the big 12 squad and we have a seat for you. No hurt feelings and thin skin allowed. Swat up. You're part of the big 12 squad. This up guys, welcome in. My name is mountaineer Paul. This is locked on big 12 squad, where we're talking, obviously some hoops tonight. We're really happy to be doing that. There is no channel sponsor for today, so we're going to bring in the fellas. Number one, we're going to be talking about Parker Ainsworth locked on Houston. What's up brother? What's up with a lot of brought him out? There he is. What's up Parker? Obviously, leave the lean.

2:00We appreciate you for being here too, as well, from locked on Arizona, and as well as Cody Stovall from locked on Oklahoma State. Guys, we've got a lot to talk about today. Obviously, the big 12 is brought in eight to the bracket, but is that enough? Did a couple teams get left out in this thing because there are people that had gripes, was West Virginia one of those, maybe. I think at the end of the day, the big 12 was pretty well represented, but certainly, you could make a case that a couple other teams should have got in. Parker, what are your thoughts on the bracket? Obviously, Houston's in a pretty good spot here. You guys actually went landed in a pretty decent bracket, as well, the side of the bracket that you're in. Yeah, I don't hate anything about Houston's draw. I've seen the biggest thing for Houston to be playing the south, and that means they go through the Toyota center. There's a whole bunch of good reasons behind doing that. The truth is about missing teams, and I'll be interested to hear from you and Cody as guys that didn't make the cut. I don't mean that negatively. I don't feel like there's a team that we missed out on that could make a big run.

3:00Obviously, George Mason's happened every once in a while. It's part of the fun of the tournament, but there's not some key player I wish I got to watch play in March Madness that's not getting too necessarily, or anything quite like that. I guess we talked pre-pod about Stanford's point guard is pretty good, but I don't think there's no good players out there either, but I'm not missing out on some, they didn't cut DeBonza from the tournament, nothing like that happens. I think on the whole, I'm all right. Yeah, obviously you guys, I mean, do we really need to bring up Idaho? Have you actually looked into Idaho yet? Are they a team worth mentioning alongside Houston and this thing? What's the score going to be in this? The Fandall spreads right now at 23 and a half as time goes by. I will say they have a freshman six, eight guy that will probably be playing somewhere else next year, and if anything, he might use this game as an audition tape, right? And I'm looking to talk to an expert this week on them to kind of get ahead of that.

4:00But they're all right. The trickier one might actually be around the second round. If you beat Idaho, you play the winner of St. Mary's A&M, who are like as opposite as opposite can be, Bucky Ball is everyone is six, six and shorter. They shoot a whole bunch of threes in full court press. Mary's looking to have a 50 possessions a game. It is, it's been interesting to see who wins that one and how things play out. But that, that's all in Oklahoma this weekend for even get to Houston afterwards. So a lot of fun stuff happening in our side of the bracket. It's fun, though, it's, it's fun kind of basketball. I think it was out saying that yes, there's some teams that got left off. I'll be quickly if I promise. Since Nadi should be in here, I think you could make the argument. West Virginia should be in there. You could make the argument that the Cowboys are going to be in there. But I will say, this is actually a big opportunity in my opinion. We've got several representatives in the NIT tournament to go along the inside of the tournament. And now we have representatives in the crown tournament. Guys, picture this. If the big 12 team wins the NCAA tournament, a big 12 team wins the NIT tournament,

5:01the big 12 team wins the crown tournament. Can we not at least use that as momentum going in the next season to stop this disillusionment that the SEC is good at flipping basketball? Now I'll give it to you, Lisa, since you're two more teams that can win it all alongside you. I think Arizona and Houston have really, really good draws to at least make it to the elite eight. Ideally, if I'm Arizona, I don't love the Wisconsin part of it. But like you can't really complain that much. And I think the two and three, I don't think Purdue and Gonzaga are particularly great for Arizona as for Houston. I felt like Houston got among the best draws as there were. And Houston is one of those teams that's as bankable as you can have. Like, Houston, you can book them to the sweet 16 just about every year. And then from then on, I like, I don't hate their dry. They're like ill in a way, North Carolina, VCU, like, I don't mind it at all. And I'm with Harkger on this just as a, as a huge college basketball nerd.

6:03I am so excited for the St. Mary's versus Texas A&M game because one team literally presses every single possession and the other takes the clock to 28 every possession. Like it's, it's going to be very, very interesting to see who can control tempo. And the weird part is usually the team that's in the extreme pressing. It's usually the under athletic team. It's usually the mid major, this time it's the high major doing it to the mid major. And so that's really, really, particularly interesting to me. And that's the last seven or eight years of West Virginia basketball. We started out press Virginia. Now we're about 60 possessions a game under Ross Hodge. So we've seen the entire gamut of what that all is that you're going to be seeing that one game. Um, but, you know, obviously moving on to Arizona really quick. I think we've, uh, you guys, most people will consider to be the favorites in the tournament. The draw really doesn't matter in this case either. I wouldn't imagine a long Island on the, I mean, what's the spread in this game? Probably bigger than 23 imagining. Right. I haven't even gotten there yet.

7:04But all I know about Long Island thus far before digging in super deep is Rod Strickland's the head coach. Uh, the main, the main guy that the people know as the coach is probably a, uh, a good sign that Arizona is going to good shape, but, um, the other part is they're going from Long Island, New York to, to San Diego to play that game. So I, I don't know, I don't know how they're feeling about that. But Arizona's case, I felt very good about the eight nine matchups as well. Utah State. I live in Utah. I've seen Utah State plenty of times. And they're a team that I think is good, but they lack one critical factor when you play Arizona as you need tremendous size and they're small. Villanova's center is about six eight. So I, I don't think when you have motocree boss and those guys looming around the basket that Arizona is terribly, um, worried in the first couple. So I, I like the path of the sweet 16, once you get to the sweet 16, you got to play good ball. And Arizona, to me, is the favorite, uh, ESPN, all those brackets have duke at 27% in Arizona at like 18 as the most popular.

8:04But if you watch these selection shows, all the people are taking Arizona and the team that was taking a lot last year was Florida. And you know, and it's not necessarily always a great, it's not a thing to be picked widely and there's expectation. But Arizona is as bankable as there is because in the games they've been healthy this season, they haven't lost like the two games they've lost. Coa Pete, uh, was severely limited and coa Pete, you could argue the third best player on the team and many thought he would be the best player of the team. So Arizona strength is just how many great players they have on a team that can step up with ones missing, but when they're fully healthy and whole, they're really hard to beat. So let's play on the team and top 30 player in the country. We got eight teams in the tournament. Would you consider it a disappointment if only four of the eight made it to the sweet 16? I, I'll, I'll speak first. I don't, I don't think so. I actually would be interested here with somebody who's not in the tournament thought on that though, because part of my thing is like I do think there's kind of a gap where they want to draw it at, at Iowa State in, or Kansas and the rest of the conference.

9:06I would put tech and BYU above that pre injuries, but the injuries obviously limited them. And like, they're just seem to be a pretty sizable gap within the, within the conference. Now that top part of the conference can win the whole thing, whether it's Iowa State, Houston, Arizona, like I do think they're that good, but I, I do think that there is kind of a line in the sand there post, Richie Saunders and JT Topp and injuries that's hard to ignore. I think Texas Tech, at least a reasonable path is, is why I brought that up. I would be slightly disappointed if we didn't get four of the eight teams in the sweet 16, maybe not the elite eight, right? That might be asking for too much, but my personal opinion, yes, the big 12 seems needs to send a message here. You're right. We've probably only got two, three teams that legitimately can win it all, but I think numerically, just like last year, if you get eight teams in, you've got to get at least four of those to the sweet 16 to give the big 12 that credence and respect level that we deserve, in my opinion, because it doesn't really get two teams in the sweet 16.

10:08Everyone's going to talk about how the big 12s overrated and people need to stop talking, but it'd be the exact opposite. If we got four or five teams in, I do think that it does help with the national image of the big 12 to go alongside winning the crown and the NIT, huh? Yeah. I mean, when you look at it too, I mean, you're talking about really good basketball teams at the top of the big 12 and Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Texas Tech and BYU all have a path there. And I mean, you've got the best player in the country at BYU, Texas Tech has probably been one of the most stable programs in college basketball for five years. Kansas is Kansas. Iowa State obviously has one of the bigger matchup problems issues and how do you say it's last saying my chile of it's your however you say it's like, I could never say it right. But I mean, he's a matchup problem every week. And then he's so good. You don't have to get his name right. Everybody knows exactly. Right. Right. Is it's Montchillabitch? Is that how you say it? I think there's a seal of it somewhere in there. Yeah. Something like that.

11:09It's tough to say. And then I would say this too. Guards are, you know, March guards are important. They miss folks at UCF could be a problem for some teams, especially with very little problems or very little time to prepare for them because he truly one of the tougher matchup problems in the league in my opinion. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens in this tournament up next. We got to talk a little bit about this too. There was something that was put out that put the talked about the spending in college sports and Indiana way up there at $32 million. Some of the big 12 teams a little bit more manageable. Are we the most efficient big 12 that can be? And then Parker's got something he wants to bring up too. We're going to talk about that right off the break. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball and this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. It's officially tournament time and the number one seeds are set.

12:11UConn is the number one overall seed at 34 and 0 and will headline Fort Worth Regional One at Dickies Arena joining the Fort Worth site as a top seed is Texas leading regional three out West UCLA enters at 31 and one and takes the top spot in Sacramento Regional two while South Carolina leads Sacramento Regional four. The first round of the tournament tips off this Friday. These moments are earned off the clock. Those long before the lights ever come on the sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes and coming back for more every time Mazda puts that same drive into every detail. And of course, we can't forget about our friends at Fandals well guys and we love talking about Fandals on the show, absolutely college basketball being nonstop with big games, tight spreads, momentum swings every single night. You've got early tip off to late night West Coast shootouts.

13:12There's always action on the board and now Fandals is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger potential win with the college basketball parlay profit boost and you can build any college hoops parlay you really want with rivalry games. You've got ranked matchups, really whatever fits your deal. And here's the thing guys, you can mix spreads, you can mix totals, player props to batch, how you see the slate playing out and then you could just apply that profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout big time. Go safe, go bold, ride the team you're with, who you follow it all season at your parlay, your style, now with more upside behind it head to vandal.com to get started, that's vandal.com with vandal play your game. It's segment to let's crack open this due and obviously we're going to get to a topic that I thought was interesting today. We're talking about efficiency, Matt Brown put out an article today talking about spending

14:13and some, some teams are spending a lot of money guys, Indiana spent $32 million, Tennessee spent $23 million, Arizona is at $22 million, Texas is at $22, you cons at $21. But for the most part, what I noticed about this article and what this tracks is everything but NIL basically, right? So everything but NILs included, so that is a kind of a big caveat, but I would say this, you look at some of the over spending for some of these teams, I mean, what are these teams doing? What is Indiana doing? Now you take out $8 million from Mike Woodson and that buyout. So they're not as far ahead of everybody as you would think, but far and away the biggest flop in all of basketball and football, not football, but basketball this year has got to be the Indiana Hoosiers, I mean, how do you spend that much money and not even make the tournament? It's incredible. You talk about the best staff. This also counts recruiting as well. So we're talking about freshmen, I mean, how do you do it?

15:17Arizona? Good job. $22 million spent well, man, leap, what do you say? Well, the answer to the Indiana one is they should have hired Ben McCollum, but that's a side danger because if they had been McCollum and and signety, they might win both each year because McCollum's unbelievable. And I like I was team as one player and it's been it starts and the rest of the team, I'm not trying to be dismissive of them, but you love to watch the game and see, see any player be like, oh, yeah, like he's decent. Nope, it's just been it starts and they're there in the tournament and they've got a chance to win the first game. But to the question of Arizona, I think a lot of it has been poured into basketball, obviously football did a good job, but like I think there's a clear hierarchy to a lot of these schools and some of them try to mix and match and say like, yeah, we're going to dip just this much into football, this much into basketball and it ends up putting a lot of weight and pressure on one of the programs or the other and it ends up costing the other program. Like if you were to be a football school, I think it makes more sense to prioritize football

16:21and in Arizona's case, I think basketball will always be the bigger draw. I mean, obviously football may cost more because you're paying more players, you're paying for different stuff. But like in terms of basketball spending, Arizona's going to be in the top echelon always. And in the in the football spending, I think they'll be in the mid tier and that's why you expect Arizona to be a championship contender basketball and you're pleasantly surprised by them being a good team in football, a team that had had an outside chance of getting to the big 12 title, obviously they didn't, but they were they were nine and three in the regular season. That's a good season. And would you like to better absolutely, but the year before your four and eight. So that was that was great. But basketball is always going to be number one, like Parker, Parker and Calvin Samson had the whole talk about like, oh, we're poor relatively speaking compared to non big 12, but they're going to prioritize basketball enough to get five stars. And to me, there's that's a hierarchy of spending of an athletic department that I think makes sense. We're poor, but Paul, tell us exactly where Houston comes in this whole field because

17:21I got a good feeling about it, about 14 and a half million, man, really good job from Houston, obviously. And very well spent there too. I mean, you're talking about both sports and not really surprised. I mean, you guys have had to do more with less for a while now coming into the big 12 and you're not getting a full share. So it's not surprised, right? I mean, when do you guys start getting a full share? Is it next year? Yeah, so we'll start in the, we'll have it. I guess the July 1st is the data, right? So from the things start, that was part of the agreement coming in, I guess, should say. And now, my understanding was that when Houston and their group of four schools came into the big 12, none of them had previously been in a power conference. And so that was part of the agreement, whereas the pack 12 schools said like, well, we were in power conference, kind of arguments, so they didn't have it. And it was also free to punish you later. I don't know if they'd have done it quite that way, had things happen the other way around. But also, I don't know if Houston would have been included, but been the other way around. So I'm not going to hate it either. Look, I will say, I think that you've seen Houston make great strides doing more with less.

18:27And I don't mean to go back to, you know, when people said in the 80s and 90s and when the big 12 broke off from the S, S Atlas conference and left Houston out or whatever, but there was a fear like, what if Houston got that oil money involved in their athletic program because of all the talent in Houston and all of that? And we're obviously a far cry from that, for teethas just but a man, right? But I think there is a momentum shift happening, whether it's Dr. Couture at the top, New A.D. Chris Pesman, like I think it goes all the way around, and so I'm feeling good about it. You mentioned, however many million dollars, that has to be like the best per win between football and basketball combined, I would imagine, in the country, I just wanted it was up there. I don't have it right in front of me anymore. I think it was, it was, it was, it was definitely, I think it mentioned one of the best in the country. I do remember that. There was, there was a lot of data there. I would, it highly suggests the article, if you know Matt Brown is, it does a great job.

19:29Just so you guys know what's Virginia's at 10.77 million, that ad gives us about 566 K per win, which is not the worst, but it's not the best. We're about, you know, middle of the package, but you know, obviously we're ramping up spending now with, with Rem Baker and company, saying, hey, look, West Virginia, we're committed to being the top funding tier of the big 12. That's not going to come in, you know, that report won't happen until this coming year, base off of this, this year or so, and the same thing with Oklahoma State, when you guys spent $7 million on one quarterback, that doesn't even count in this. And that's a big part of this, as NIL doesn't really be encountered. And you know, and to some extent, like when you look at some of these universities that are private, you can, you can foyer all you want, sometimes you're just not going to get the information. And that's why a lot of these big 12 teams weren't listed in this, but it was alluded to that most big 12 teams were in that 11 to 16, 17 million dollar range, you know.

20:30So I mean, usually it's a big 10 or an SEC school, it's 18 or above, 20 year above. So it's interesting. But what are your thoughts on Oklahoma State, how they've done with spending, obviously, you're going to have to probably count some of what Gundies offsetting and all that too, right? Um, I mean, we had one win this previous season and not very many more of the year before. If you're talking about return on investment, if Houston might have the best in the country when it comes to wins per how much you spent, we might be the worst, definitely in the big 12. I, I will say this though, there has been a massive investment. There seemed to be some reluctancy from some donors to participate heavily under my gun. Now that we've got Raj Murdy and Eric Morris, those, those individuals that were supposedly waiting in the wings, they have clearly stepped up. You mentioned the seven and a half million, we're paying to the quarterback. We're taking care of Caleb Hawkins, Wyatt Young, we've got some defensive dues that were definitely taking care of. I think Oklahoma State is going to be viewed in a significantly different light after this

21:32upcoming season. But until now, basketball has been trending the right way, but not great. Football has been absolutely abysmal. So I think we spent fine. We just spent the money on the wrong people, right? There's a difference between being able to spend money and being able to allocate the funds towards the right dudes. Last year, we probably spent roughly in the same category as Houston, probably in the 15-ish range, and we didn't pay for the right guys. We're paying for the right guys now, and we've got donors that seemingly are flooding the campus with more dollars, including basketball, right? There's a lot of conversations about NIL and basketball, and still are going up to 10 mil next year. So I imagine that we're going to be much more competitive in both sports moving forward. So let's have this same conversation this time next year, buddy. The buddy system works in sports too, and Parker is going to tell us a little bit about that right after the break. All right, guys, we've got to talk about our friends over at Robin Hood right now.

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23:41And of course, of course, guys are friends that indeed we're talking about indeed right now. And indeed, it's kind of killing the game when you look at what they do because they try to talk about workplace chaos, there's deadline stacking up is your inbox overflowing. The one position you have to feel still sitting open, well, when the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job, response or jobs, indeed, sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for with skills, experience and location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post and here's a stat to says it all. And the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed down a more wide, so if you're hiring, spending less time searching, more time interviewing, that's the candidates that check all your boxes with indeed, sponsored jobs, you can do that. And that's right, that's less time searching, more time actually interviewing those people, less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for indeed, sponsored

24:43jobs. So the questioners of this show will get $75 sponsored credit to help get your job, the premium status that deserves at nd.com slash podcast. Just go to indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast, that's indeed.com slash podcast with the terms and conditions apply. Do you need to hire, this is a job for indeed, sponsored jobs. You always are back in town is what I probably could have said Parker, you brought something up to me right before the show, we'll pivot really quick, football scoop does have some predictions on when totals for the big 12, but I actually think yours is kind of cool. What were you talking about actually think it's kind of cool, listen, he's in, we just talk about doing well, given the finance situation, bet MGM, which is I guess another outlet out there that does sports things posted an interesting list on social media.

25:45And it compared who has the most successful basketball and football coaches, the revenue sports, right? And I got to ask where y'all at? Where are y'all at Houston comes at number two, Alabama one, Tennessee three, Oregon four, Louisville five, Virginia six, Miami seven, Florida eight, we're the only big 12 reps, guys, where y'all been? Well, mark my words, give it a couple of years, let Eric Morris get rolling because David Taylor is already the other part of that equation, Steve Lutz could be a guy, but if you're talking about combinations, I'm a little upset that they only included those two particular sports because I think Penn State would even have an argument. If you looked at kale Sanderson and if Matt Campbell is successful, they could probably be on this list as well. Let's not dismiss the man's sport of wrestling ladies and gentlemen, because David Taylor would be up there after Eric Morris gets this thing rolling. The possibility of Arizona being on this list intrigues me, you give your guy one more

26:49year on the football side of things, Tommy Lloyd would be an easy ad. Yeah, I was thinking that the Brett Brennan going four and eight in the first year and kind of just a transitional year really hampered the chances here, but Tommy Lloyd through five years of being a head coach has broken the record for most wins in five years. He's crushing it. So I think Tommy Lloyd's obviously going to be on here and I'm not saying he didn't inherit a great crop of talent. Like they came in with a one seed level talent. He got coached the year, he got coached the year this year in the big 12. So they got talent Brett Brennan, I think this year's a prove it year because they're four and eight, the nine and four. And I think, you know, you got a few to one more time. I think the the bar is at least seven wins. I think they should be aiming to be an eight or nine win team. And if you can exceed that, then you have a great season and they're certainly on this. My big takeaway was why is Alabama there? Kaelin DeBoer has been like an underwhelming football guy and oats, you know, they had one one seed year. They made one final four as a four seed.

27:51And then each year they've been like, oh, you know, top two preseason, they have so much talent, five stars, money spent for transfers. And they're a four seed again. Like a four seed. I think that's actually insane that they're number one in that graphic. That's also why MGM is hot garbage and we use independent. They've got as many they got more guys kicked at a school than they have final fours. That's never good percentages. I think I think all the ways officially out of school at this point. Look, I also, but he is playing in the game on on Thursday or Friday. That's ludicrous. I don't know when it's plural. Anyway, I want to ask, look, we can all have a respective hat on say why we think our people should be real quick. We're talking about some win totals here in the big 12 because I think when you look at next year, what they're predicting for, you know, they've got Texas Tech at 11.5, which is crazy. BYU and Utah at eight and a half Arizona, Houston, Kansas State at seven and a half Arizona

28:51state, Baylor, Oklahoma State and TCO six and a half Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, UCF West Virginia at five and a half and then Deon Sanders is at four and a half. Yeah, they're just Deon Sanders now. Yeah. In all seriousness, though, what are your guys take away from your specific team and what they've got going on there? Six and a half is reasonable. I have no reason to talk to disparaging Lee on it. Do I think why young Caleb Hawkins, Drew Mesta maker, should account for more? Yes. But after one win season, I think six and a half is fair. I'll cut Leapop. I think that honestly, Houston's a little undersold there. I understand that they had a fairly friendly schedule last year. Their schedule next year is not a whole lot less friendly. They have Oregon State at home. They play Southern. They played Georgia Southern. They're non-conference games. You get, obviously, have to go to tech. You have to go to Utah.

29:52I think another tough one that got at some point. Morgan Times a tough place to play and I don't know as much about them as you would probably tell me more about them next year. Two manhand Kansas, those tough place to play. But like, last year this team went 10 and three. They went half the games and just listed. You're looking at another 10-ish win season. You know, I think that that's a pretty strong, I mean, I feel pretty good at Houston going in next year, given the way their portal class shook out. The recruiting class of Keeshawn, obviously. I'm feeling all right. Feeling all right. I think that's a low number for us. What about your zone? I think that the number's pretty spot on. I mean, just a couple of moments ago, I had said that like, it's a maker break year. It's a prove a year for Brandon and the boys. But I said seven is kind of like the level of like, okay, like you got to get seven to maintain momentum. But I kind of expect more than that because you bring back the offensive player of the year. And in no if a feeling, I'm sorry, excuse me, I would should have been the offensive player

30:53of the year, in my opinion. And he ended up being the quarterback of the year because he was first among quarterback. And if you were to tell me that you get that back and you retain all your coordinators, offensive defensive, keep the coaches in system, I feel like you're bound to go up. The only thing that would be a question is how well do you replace the defensive backs that made Arizona such a volunteer defense by the end of the season where their turnover ratio was such a positive. So I think there is room for regression. But I just think having Fafita, if he's healthy, allows you to be at seven at a baseline. And I think if you're anything better than seven, you're pretty pleased. I think obviously at Arizona fans that listen to it and be like, oh, we should be better. But I think it's realistic to say like eight wins is pretty good, even if nine was the number last year because Arizona started one in three in conference, rattle off a bunch. And I think they had a fairly friendly schedule with a couple of wins that weren't like, if you picked before the season, you're probably not saying they win because they came off for eight. But also they have a tough schedule coming in eight wins and a bit of beyond I'm happy. What about you, Paul?

31:54Yeah, real quick here. I'll say, you know, obviously for West Virginia, you could go either way on it. I think personally, I mean, as a homer, I'll say five and a half is probably just a little bit low. I would like to see us up into that six and a half or seven and a half box reason is like, you know, and especially, you know, I've spoken to a lot of people in camp here at the start of the spring and West Virginia's offensive line as a chance to be elite this year. They went and spent right around $4 million on the offensive line alone. They've got the best freshman. I think offensive lineman in the big 12 and Kevin Brown, who broke every single record this off season in the weight room coming in, luckily Penn State lost that kid. We are so lucky to get a kid of this caliber. Like I said, coming into this, I think he'll be the Jordan seat in West Virginia. I think he's that good. He's probably going to start is going to be hard to keep him off the field. And that's included in West Virginia went out and got six starters from the portal from other places to all conference guys, you know, one guy that started the last seven games

32:59of the year at Kansas State and had a heck of a run that we gave 500, 500 K to, you know, and that's not including the incumbent, the people that were already here last year. So yeah, I do think and then you bring in Rick Trickett, the best offensive line coach, one of the two or three best of the last 30 years. He's put over 40 guys in the NFL. He won a national championship with Sabin. He won a national championship with Jimbo. And now he reunites with Rich Rodd where he's had a top five rushing offense, three of the last three years in College football, two of those with Rich Rodd, one without Rich Rodd because he's just the best offensive line coach, more one of the best out there. So I think offensively we're going to be really good. My cockins junior early reports on him are very good, you know, he's a four three kid. And when you get Rich Rodd, a four three quarterback that can run four three with the leading rusher from last year on Cam Cook, who was started at TCU.

33:59He's now at West Virginia, who had 1600 rushing yards last year, 1900 from Scrimmage. I think we're going to have an elite offense. Our defense. I don't know. I think there are some holes there. We have to fix. And that's the reason I'm not totally over the moon for us right now, to be honest. I think we're going to have a year to jump. It's similar to Houston's, but I don't think we're going to be as good as Houston's was. Probably be closer to seven, maybe eight or four lucky. I'm trying to keep it reasonable there, but our offense is in position to be really good next year. I really believe that. So look up at West Virginia as far as a little bit of a sleeper, I think. I think we could all agree Michael Hawkins, junior has a ton of talent, but I'm going to give you something, a piece of wisdom to hold on to for the rest of your life. Paul, you ready? You can't never trust a sooner, man. So you're getting all excited for nothing. He's going to let you down. I guarantee it. You got Scotty Fox, you know what I mean? Like that's a heck of a battle going on. And there's no guarantee that he beats out Scotty who had just thrown into the fire as

34:59a true freshman last year. So don't want to keep you guys too much longer, but what did you say about the local homostate cowboys there? I didn't know. Did you did you talk about that? Yeah, I said it was fair, man. I think that's right. You didn't say much. Okay. All right. Well, I guess we're all we're all in agreement then anybody else on this list, just a gree just really quick, though, before we go, like, is 11 and a half like, is that really where Texas Tech is at? Is that the bar for them right now? It's what they're spending, I mean, they spent like it, right? I can tell you this. As a betting man, I love tech. I think they have a really good chance to win the big 12 again, 11 and a half is a lot again. Yeah, I'm not taking the over on that bet no, no way, no way, no way. Yeah. I mean, they lose at least one in more than now. Nope. I'm stunned. They're not on that list of best coaches of basketball and football. I mean, that's a great, really grunt. There's 11 and a half for football and Grant McCastle just had you in the elite eight and year two. What was that even year one? Now I was year two.

36:00It's like, how is how are you not on that list and someone or and as a back to a 11 wins and basketball? He any and McCastle and McCastle lost his best player, reigning coach player of the year and still has them as a 60 or whatever, five, six, whatever, yeah, and it's like, okay. What a crazy real Baker stat 16, like if we if we really quickly bring something up, like I had the big 12 gets four in the sweet 16 because I think Arizona, Houston, Iowa state should be in the sweet 16 like their past a ton. And then I think one of BYU, Texas tech or Kansas can make it like I think St. John's will beat Kansas. I'll just be up front about that. But like it's not it's not crazy to say Kansas can win that one. I think BYU can beat Kansas. I guess should they beat a Texas or NC state? I think Texas tech will beat Akron and will beat Alabama because Alabama doesn't guard. And so like you got six chances to make the sweet 16 in my opinion, like I'm not trying to be disparaging to UCF or TCU, TCU obviously got Duke if they can be Oklahoma state at UCLA's

37:01a tough draw for UCF, but like you got six chance to make the sweet 16. I think they should have three in the elite eight. Iowa state's got a little more tenuous there, but I really expect Arizona and Houston both to be in the lead eight. And I've got both my bracket in the final four at a baby leaf. All right, guys. Thank you all so much for being here. It's been a fun conversation guys. Before you go, make sure you check out the locked on every day or club, absolutely killing the game with them right now. And this will be the last day that you can get in before the tournament starts right now with the locked on every day or club. There are a ton of perks going on right now, guys. So if you never miss a show, make sure you go to locked on big 12 dot super cast dot com or any of the other respective teams in the conference, whether that be Oklahoma state, whether that be Houston or the Cougs or whether that be locked on Arizona Wildcats, any of those teams you can go to their locked on perspective show and you can get there through super cast dot com with the promo code march. That'll get you a month free, but you can only get there if you do it before

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