PREVIEW: BYU vs. Cincinnati | BYU’s Latest BRACKETOLOGY

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1:01We're live recording this right now. It is Monday, March 2nd. BYU Cincinnati Preview. BYU currently on a two-game losing streak to... ...disgusting losses to put it lightly from BYU. But we got some other stuff get into chase before we... ...dive into some bracketology in the Cincinnati Preview. You have anything from the West Virginia game? Because I don't. Man, you know I don't. What was said, I needed to be said. And if you need any more info, just listen to K-Y in his pressur... ...and he did it today. You get the gist, man. It's all about effort, all about defense. And we're done with it. Let's move on. All right. I do not want to talk about it. Easy enough, I don't want to talk about it either. Let's talk about bracketology. Because this is the question I feel like you and I are both... ...getting hit up constantly from people being like... ...can BYU make the tournament... Is BYU still going to make the tournament after these losses? You know, what seed are they going to be and all this stuff? I've used my connections now with all the bracket folks that I know,

2:02all the great bracketologists who are, for the fact, better than Joe Lennarty. I want that out there. Everyone goes to Joe Lennarty. Joe Lennarty's my guy, but Joe Lennarty and I have a history together. But these guys are the better ones. Shout out the field of 68 and field. Are you going to explain the history with you and Joe Lennarty? You're dropping all these names. My connections, Joe Lennarty, you got a history. I'm sorry, I'm going to leave this in the dark. You're going to leave this in the dark with that. I'll do it later on. That's another show. All right. I'm focused on Cincinnati. On to Cincinnati. We're on to Cincinnati. Yeah. And then we're immediately going to be off Cincinnati the second this one ends. But yeah, let's get into the bracketology of it. Right now, fielding the 68, they currently have BYU as the second or last succeed in the tournament right now. So even with these losses this past week, they didn't drop out of the succeed line, which is crazy. I know if you're listening, there's like, what how? Some people have them as a seven seed right now.

3:05You're probably not going to see BYU as long as they win one more game to close out this year. You're not going to fall them to see them fall to the 89 game. And another reason you're not going to see them in the 89 game this season is because right now, based on who is the who are the one seeds, where their geographical preferences to play in the round of 64 and round of 32. They all fall on Friday Sunday. As we all know, BYU cannot play on Sundays and have the potential playing on Sundays. So therefore, they can only be in two regions. And they can also not play first round games on Friday Sunday or potential Sunday. So therefore, all the one seeds play Friday Sunday. A lot of the two seeds also are going to be playing on Friday Sunday as well. So there is a limited window on what two seeds BYU could be matched up with. Plus, their resume warns them still even at this point. I know how shocking it is. I know what the I test shows us, but their overall resume still points to them as a six seed in bracketology at this moment. So it's very likely we see BYU still in the 6-11 matchup,

4:10even if they don't close the season strong. And then on the flip side of it, the positive side, let's say BYU wins their next two games, you know, wins a couple of games in the big 12 tournament. I still think they end up in that 6-11 spot. I think they are firmly in the 6th, lowest they fall as a 7. And that's how it's going to be going into March Band this chase. Yeah, you made a good point. I know for a lot of BYU fans, this season has been disappointing. And for us, it's been two because we watch the games. To watch a lot of the games, yeah, watch a lot of the stuff. You know, we try to do our jobs the right way. And we're with all the people. But we also, objectively, you look at the resume like you said, this is a 6-seed resume. BYU is still 23rd in net, which is the NCAA selection committee's number one factor to look at. They have 6-1 wins. They have zero bad losses. As bad as some losses have felt in the moment, right, Oklahoma State, UCF, this West Virginia one. I know they've felt ugly when we watch to them, right,

5:12when we talked about them and when we reacted to them. They were ugly because BYU were holding them to a very high standard. But by the standards of selection committee and net and all this stuff, they're not bad, all right. They are not in any way shape or form a disaster loss. That's why you've seen BYU stick around the 6-seed line for a lot of bracketologists despite the stretch that they've had. So in the tournament, 100%, that's been locked up for a few weeks now. And they're going to be a single digit seed. I think that's locked up. And I'm with you. Seven's pretty much the floor right now just because of how crazy eight and I would get. But that being said, I don't think that gives BYU license to screw around and just not take these games seriously because another win would make you feel really just comfortable about the 6-seed line and let you kind of breathe a little bit. And just gear up and get ready for the tournament, see where the chips fall, see where your matchup is, second round, all that stuff. But as awful as it feels for us and I don't want to defend BYU at all because I don't really deserve it right now.

6:15There's awful as it's felt for BYU fans. On paper, it's still a decent resume. Yeah, it's a decent resume. It's a decent resume. They don't have disaster losses, like you said. But the one thing that will be seen going into selection Sunday is that the committee will be evaluating this BYU team very much so on the Post-Ritchie Saunders part of it. So like absolute worst case scenario. Once again, they can't be in the eight, nine game most likely. Maybe, maybe they get, if they get, like say they get blown out chase by a 20 to Cincinnati, you know, 20 to Texas Tech and they lose like Utah in the big 12 tournament on that Tuesday. The Post-Ritchie Saunders part. That's absolute worst case scenario. And if the committee is hell bent on, we are going to grade this team on the Post-Ritchie Saunders era. Then it gets weird where it's like, okay, maybe they would fall to that eight, nine line. And then they would get demoted for the Sunday part of this to play in the 710 matchup.

7:16But honestly though, if they're playing, if they're the 10C, if they're in the 710 game, I don't care if you're the 7 or the 10, it's essentially the same game at that point. You have the same path to the tournament and it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter. You're right. 100% And I know that's a lot to keep up with because I threw a bunch of different numbers that people and everything and people are like, their heads are probably spinning from this. Just know BYU's fine. The matchups, the way it goes, BYU's going to be avoiding a one seed. That's all you need to know. From all this bracketology we just talked about, BYU will be avoiding one seeds. Come March Madness. Unless they made some crazy run and won the big 12 tournament. But assuming they're probably going to be having to play on Tuesday, I don't believe this BYU team, as little depth as they have, will be winning five games in five days in Kansas City. Yeah, I think the sixth seed is the most ideal to be completely honest with you for BYU because you do just get to put off those one seeds as kind of long as possible.

8:19This is going to sound like sour grapes, but I just am really not scared of a lot of these top end seeds, besides the one seeds. The two seeds, you can talk me into a few of them. Floaters looking amazing. Houston just has BYU's number, stuff like that. But the three seeds I think is where BYU can kind of be looking their chops a little bit if they're able to draw one of those teams. Come March Madness in the second round because I just think they're all vulnerable. Our guys that feel in the 68 have that as BYU would be matched up with Purdue in the second round. Just watch them lose to Ohio State on Sunday. Nebraska is in that category by feeling 68 and missing in states in there. It's like, I just think BYU, and this is kind of the story of them in this season, they're kind of a crapshoot. It's kind of dependent game by game, but we see them really play very well against a legitimate top tier seed in Iowa State one night. And then you drop two games to a team that's in the bubble, a team that's not going to make the tournaments.

9:20They're just so volatile, but they're so talented and good that we said this a bunch. We're going to talk ourselves into them making some like second weekend runs. Just because I like their matchups, when you when you continue to look at them, it's just when they get on the court, are they going to give effort? Are they going to hustle defensively and play smart basketball and be intelligent and savvy? If they're not, then yes, BYU will underperform in this tournament, while walk away sad. But if BYU plays to its potential, they're good enough to be pretty much anyone in the field. And so at the six line, I don't hate it for BYU. It's a big disappointment. I know being a 60 with this roster where you started in this talent, a massive disappointment. But we're trying to make the best we can with what we've been given here. And a six seed is not an awful place to be at, Carter. It is not. You talk about what the field of 68 has right now with, you know, their matchup would be Purdue. We all know how Purdue's been looking lately.

10:20You got Nebraska who you played in a preseason game, where BYU didn't even try in that game and almost had a Jared McGregor shot to win in a preseason matchup. And Michigan State, you know, they have offensive, you know, issues. But Tom is though in March. That's a good bet. That'd be a tough game. All those would be tough games, obviously. Especially when you're talking about BYU, you know, losing at home to UCF and on the road at West Virginia. It's it's also a good good point earlier. You made chase of talking about like you, you still want to win these games. You still should have some pride in what you're going to play for. Issue is they don't have that much to play for until March comes around. And it's kind of a double edged sword where it's like on one end, like, yeah, human nature sets in. I worry about this BYU isn't going into March and everything. I can see where the motivation is lost at this point of the season. Because also if all these people are telling you, it's like, yeah, you only have to win like one more game. And you're probably going to be locked into your tournament seating. No matter what, it is hard to have that kind of motivation. On the flip side of that chase, I know how poor BYU's looked.

11:22But there is a real part of me. And maybe it's just, you know, the optimistic side of me that's saying, look, once it turns, once it becomes March, man, this time you go out and you're playing a first round matchup. And you know, it's a do or die in this moment. That's when you expect to see that effort. And we know what this BYU team is capable of when they bring that effort. I want 100%. And so if they're playing the style like, like, whatever, we're waiting for the tournament, fine. I personally think that's lame. I mean, it's 100% agree. It's not fair to the people rooting you on and paying money to come watch you play. I don't think that's that's the forefront. They're not in coaches meetings. Like, how can we lose this one? But in the back of your mind, and it's just an attitude thing, maybe. If that's what you're feeling, fine, you know, whatever. But you better prove it come March time. I don't think it's the best strategy. But whatever. But you're right with BYU. It's like, at this point, what are you playing for? These last two regular season games. Okay, you gotta go to Cincinnati.

12:23Look, they're fighting for their tournament lives. If they could get, if they could put together a string of wins here, they might find themselves in. But BYU, look, it's a quad one game. It's away from home. You know, there's storms doing a lot of traveling, whatever. Who knows what that win could do for them? Other than, and this is the one thing, I think that you want to play for. I really think you want to avoid playing Tuesday in the big 12 tournament. You just means you have to travel there earlier. You have to play another game. You have to play, you know, in fear of your teams. And you just put more strain and stress on your body. So this Cincinnati game is big for really only that one reason. Because they're really close in the stand right now. I think they're both eight and eight. So a win over Cincinnati would give you a tiebreaker edge. And obviously, you'd move to 98 in conference play, which I think would put you at that eight spot behind West Virginia and UCF. And that, to me, is a big deal. You just don't want to play Tuesday in Kansas City. You don't want to play Tuesdays.

13:23It does suck. But guess what? We'll probably be going live Tuesday right after BYU plays like you tell us they win Carter. If they win, then they, then they'll be fine. We'll see. We'll see. You want to get into the Cincinnati preview now? Yeah, let's just do it. All right, let's do it. Uh, BYU is currently a one and a half point dog on the road at Cincinnati Cincinnati. They've been playing well as late. They've won what five out of their last six. West Miller's coaching for his life right now. They are 16 and 13 at this moment. They got that big win at Kansas. They also beat Iowa State at home this year. Their wins recently, UCF at Kansas State, Utah, at Kansas, lost the Texas Tech, got blown out. And then a home win against Oklahoma State. Now they've closed with BYU and at TCU. They're currently on the next four out of a lot of bracketologists. Resumeys right now. So they're pretty far outside the bubble. They still have a ton of work to do. But if West Miller wants any chance at keeping his job, the Cincinnati team wants any chance at making the tournament, they have to win out this week.

14:24And they have to make a decently far run in the big 12 tournament. And that starts by winning this week. And you and Cincinnati themselves getting the buy and playing on Wednesday. Then you can kind of talk to yourself into making some kind of run in Kansas City. But Chase, what the talent this BYU team has, and they're currently an underdog on the road to this Cincinnati team who's barely hanging on for dear life. That's a problem. It says a lot about the way the season's gone. The way the P.O. used looked. After all, the Cincinnati numbers for you real quick. Kim Palm, 44 overall. They're 130th offense. Defense 13th. Very good at tempo 166. And I said this to you before the pod, they're kind of just like West Virginia. West Virginia with I think a bit more individual talent. Yeah. It's just crazy how they're more of a middling offense. Statistically, they're the worst offense in the conference. I thought we said that about West Virginia.

15:26Yeah, West Virginia was second worst. And Cincinnati was the worst or is the worst. But they are one of the better defenses in the entire country. Some interesting stats to pull off for you. They have the worst field goal percentage in the conference by far. They have the worst three point field goal percentage by far. But they take the most threes in the entire conference. They put up about 27 a game and they've made the sixth most. So worst percentage in the conference, but they've made the sixth most because they're kind of chucking them in a lot of these moments. The tempo is not there like we mentioned. And I think this is a really dangerous spot for P.O.I.U. because what has killed them in all these ugly games? It's what do is get hot from three. And when you can stretch P.O.I.U. out like that, that's just that's just worsens whatever problems they have going on with West Virginia. It wasn't so much duplex shooting. It was every single ball screen led to a bucket or a foul.

16:28And so if P.O.I.U. has to stretch out for the Cincinnati and I think that'll be wide open. If they pack it in Cincinnati again, they attempt the most threes in the conference. They will not be afraid to just chuck these up and playing at home in your own gym with momentum fighting for your coach's life and a chance to play in March. You gotta expect them to get hot and hit in a few of these. And they have some legitimate flame throwing guys. I mean, these are names that you might recognize. Day-day Thomas shooting 40 percent. Jizzle James, of course, shooting 44 percent. These dudes can legit go nuclear on P.O.I.U. and no one's better letting go nuclear than P.O.I.U. And it's not like these guys haven't done it on the big stage before. Like they've done it against Iowa State. They also did it on the road at Allen Field House. Went and once again, nuclear from beyond the arc. I'm going to continue reading off some Cincinnati numbers here just to put it into context. 32.9 percent, 3.0 percentage. They are 323 in the country and free throw percentage.

17:32That is a very important stat to remember when going into this game because P.O.I.U. has benefited from teams missing free throws at times. And yeah, you look at the pace just middle of the road. You have the field goal percentage. I mean, there's almost 300 in the country and field goal percentage. They don't take a lot of efficient shots, Jizz. And that's where P.O.I.U. can exploit this team or where they can get away with it. Where yes, P.O.I.U's perimeter defense has been awful. But they can force Cincinnati. And Cincinnati is almost willing to do this at times. Is settle for these tough long threes and tough long twos. If you and then their front court is also very good with Tiam and Baba Miller. Yeah, I'm going to be honest to your chase. I'm going to just go spoiler alert. I don't see P.O.I.U. one in this game because we talk about this, you know, you can talk yourself into the West Virginia game. We both predicted double digit wins for against West Virginia. If P.O.I.U brings the effort, you know, this is a broken record beating a dead horse. Thank goodness. These previews are almost over because once again, we know what this P.O.I.U.

18:33team is at this point. Chase, we could have done this podcast in 30 seconds. Probably you're just the preview portion. If P.O.I.U brings the effort low one by double digits. If they don't, they lose. Simple as that. And guess what? Am I going to bet on this P.O.I.U. team after two straight games of not bringing that effort? I'm assuming they're not going to bring the effort for the third straight game. Put me on the freaking, the cut, bulk thing, whatever, the cut afterwards and say, oh, this guy got us wrong. This guy used me as motivation to play me in the locker room because I don't believe in you. I have no faith in this team at this point, coming in and bringing a lick of effort. It's proved me wrong. Because therefore, I don't believe in it. Since the natty wins this game, 76 P.O.I.U. 69. Man, that was... Why should I do it, Chase? What? What? What have they shown in the last week? They got fat and happy after. And I would say it when we're like, all right, we showed we can beat a quad one A team. And then they overlooked UCF. They didn't think UCF was coming in there and doing crap in that game.

19:34And then they go to West Virginia. And then in the first half, once again, slow start, same bull crap. And then at the end of the game, you just sit there and ball-watching. You look around and go, I don't feel like garden. Oh, man, you know, I kind of move my feet. I don't know. I don't feel like it. That's what it was. And so go into this game and prove me wrong. Make me look stupid after the game. I love it. And I hope they do. But I unfortunately have to agree with you, Carter. This is so funny because if we did a show like first state, because first state that go into production of meetings and they're like, all right, Steve and A, you're going to say yes to this, skip bailiffs, you're going to say no to this, or whoever's on first take nowadays. And you and I just, I agree with you. That's a great point. And everyone's like, this show sucks. Bad podcasting. Look, a part of me wants, we watch all this stuff. There's no other, there's no other answer to it. You know who else agrees with us a lot?

20:34Coaching staff feels like we're listening to ourselves. Sometimes when we hear some of the post game thoughts, but that's just obvious stuff. I'm not saying we're like that. But I think if you're BYU, the only thing again, you have to play for is one that missing out on Tuesday. I think they are aware of that. I think they do not want to play Tuesday until it's turn. But the arguably biggest thing you're playing for here is just your pride. Like, are you going to show us what you're made of or are you just going to roll over and die? And if you're going to roll over and die, fine, man, like again, you can pick it up in March, maybe prove us wrong. But, you know, we posted the Patino clip and I think it's just perfectly sums up how we feel about this team. Carter, you kind of just had your Patino moment right there with that little rant. We might need to clip that off. But that's what he's talking about. He's like, when, when, when life gets hard, like, when do you bounce back? And KY said in the pressure, like, like, there's ups and there's downs. Like, we got, we got to respond. There's been zero response from this team. I can do the KY pressure right here.

21:36You know, it's, hey, crap happens bottom line. He always says bottom line in his press conferences. Like, yeah, crap happens bottom line, figure it out, bounce back. That's all it is. And yeah, once again, if they roll over and quit, we'll know what this team's about. We know what the mentality is. That'll say a lot about this team. Prove me wrong. And also, my other reason for predicting Cincinnati wins this game is once on the road, tough environment. They like to muck it up. And BYU has fallen victim to other teams dictating the tempo quite a bit recently, especially as we saw in the West Virginia game. BYU has to speed up the Cincinnati team. They're better in transition than West Virginia. But get out and transition and all that crap. We said that time and time again. Look, Chase, what's the number one thing we talk about going into these games? Even going back to last season, we talk about the Utah game. Who's hungrier? Who wants it more? West Miller in the Cincinnati team are playing for their literal lives right now. Everything is on the line for them. I'm taking the hunger team. I'm taking the more desperate team. Until BYU shows me otherwise. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And I agree. If BYU is going to win, we've got to be just a touch positive here.

22:38They have to do those things that you talked about. They've got to dictate the pace. They've got to walk in that gym and just be like, we're going to control this game. Like we have the tools to do it. We are physical. We can be big. You're still more talented. If that's the strong, you're easily. You're more talented than the Cincinnati team. You have to go in there with a chip on your shoulder as cliche as it sounds and bring that sort of intensity all 40 minutes. And if it doesn't happen in the first two minutes of this game, Carter, you and I will both know exactly what's going to go down. And it'll be another disappointing loss. Will BYU be down in the first half? Book it. Will they come back and make it some semblance of a game in the second half? Book it. But ultimately, I think since the 90 wins, you're right. Prove me wrong as well. We talked about those two guards in Thomas and James. And you mentioned Miller and Thomb. Those are the front courts. They're also their leading scorers as versatile. These guards are you've got to take care of the seven two and you know, six foot 10 guy who are going to bang you down low and grab rebounds and

23:41BYU doesn't have this BYU team. Yes, currently constituted. Doesn't have the chops to go in and win this game. I got Cincinnati. Again, I think BYU does find a way to make it close at the end like they always do. Cincinnati 81 BYU 75. I'm scoring. Have you seen BYU's defense? Like, I know that's a good idea. I think everyone's getting the eighties with this with this team. Yeah, and going to Cincinnati, talking about Cincinnati for a second, I need to see BYU play a lot in this game. You know, he's probably not going to star. It is what it is at this point. He needs to be starting over. He needs to be playing over Bosch Vitch in this game because I don't think Bosch Vitch is going to be able to handle guarding a guy like Bob a Miller or Tiam and especially on switches where BYU can actually play physical in this game. You need a physical presence down low. And we've been banging the drum all year and I'm not going to pretend like BYU was great in the last couple of games when he came in and everything. But he does bring the effort in the energy. I would love to just see what happens when he's starting the game that way and

24:44bringing that energy from the jump to other guys follow. Now, I know in basketball most of the time you follow the same intensity as your leader, as your best player. But if you can come in and make some big defensive plays to start the game early, get their confidence going, get some big rebounds. I'd love to see it because I hear every press conference that everything's on the table. Why not at this point? Just why not? Yeah, as much as I appreciate Bosch Vitch, the effort he brings, he should not be starting in this lineup. There's just better guys that give you way more valuable minutes. And I don't understand why in the most crucial moments of this game for BYU, have always been the first five. Every under 16 timeout, we can pretty much gauge exactly where this game is going. So why not start it off on the right foot with the best five you have out there instead of waiting. Chase, I take 10 minutes left in the game. I texted you with 1920 left in the first half of the West Virginia game. I said, oh, so this is how it's going to go. And it's exactly how it went. Yep, so there you go.

25:44All right, well, that's BYU Cincinnati preview. We'll be live right after the game. Hopefully it's a good live chase. We need it. I'm ready to do these after wins again. We what BYU's what eight, four and eight in their last 12 games. It's despicable, gross, nasty, awful. You name the word. But guess what, man, turn it around. Look, the calendar turned to March. That's when you turn it on, man. Turn it on in March. Yep, let's go win these two games this week. Go to the big 12 tournament. You win a game. You win one or two games and lose. You don't need to play all five. We'll get these guys rested for March madness. And then you go into March madness and shock the world. Can be done. Now prove it to me. Make me look stupid. We don't think you guys have the chops. You we don't think it's in you. Please prove it's wrong. Please. That's right. Anyhow. Chase, make sure to follow that church ball pond and everything. I am. Just go Roger zero at corner B8.

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