welcome everybody to the March Madness sweet 16 preview special on the gring through Sports Network make sure if you want to bet on the games this weekend the sweet 16 or the Elite 8 we've got Major League Baseball kicking off the NBA nobody really cares but if you want to bet on it you could go to bet MGM the top sports book for betting on college basketball NBA a baseball you name it B MGM is the place to do it if you're watching on YouTube you can click on the link of the description down bel
ow to check it out and go to it for some great firsttime sign up deals I'm your host Mike good pastor today we're going to look at all eight games coming up into the sweet 16 hopefully my voice will hold out and the NCAA tournament this year you look at the sweet 16 there's only one match up where you have a double digigit favorite which is the San Diego State against Yukon a rematch of last year's national championship game and Joe spilman says my shirt is on backwards yes because I like it on
backwards Joe so you can leave me alone but this NCAA tournament I would say this the quality of play is not as good as what we've seen in the past and I think that we're starting to see the transfer portal really have or really start to have an effect on what's going on the teams continuity wise every year it seems like you're changing at least half of the players on your team people are leaving and tomorrow we are bringing back survive in advance I'll be on with Steve rizzly at noon live to di
scuss the transfer portal the effect that the nil have had on the NCAA tournament basketball and college football in general make sure you check us out at noon live there all right guys we're going to start off as an IU fan I hate to do it but we're going to start off with Gonzaga versus Purdue Gonzaga and Purdue Purdue is favored by five and a half points and I think what we see is a different Purdue team than what we've seen in the past the Utah State team was not a bad team Gonzaga hasn't bee
n as dominant or as consistent as they have been in previous Seasons at times this year they struggled they lost the St Mary's a couple times yet eventually with a great head coach in Mark Fu they found an extra gear and you know as far as an underperforming team that hasn't been true as of late they've went 11- one in their last 12 games they're five and a Half Point underdogs going in against the Purdue now when you start off Size Matters for both teams I know Joe Spelman tells me his wife say
s the Size Doesn't Matter Joe she's lying to you but Gonzaga boasts two six foot1 guys and Ben Greg and BR Braden huff and they should at least pose some difficulty for Zack Edy who is the most dominant player in college basketball and I know people will say he gets away with murder but we watched gramling State basically scratch claw left marks all over his body nobody ever defends Edy Edy is a special player when he scores 24 and gets 12 rebounds it's no big deal because that's what you expect
and Purdue Is Not Just Jack Ed or Zack Edy alone you've got lawyer you've got Lance Jones this is a team that is more of a complete team than what we've seen before and they beat Utah State who was a formidable opponent I think Utah state was what 26 and Six coming in had been ranked into top 25 off and on during the season but the offense for Purdue was fantastic they scored 106 points the ball movement the energy level were outstanding as well and gonzaga's recent team isn't your typical one
they're not g great from the outside they're not forcing enough turnovers yet the Bulldogs offense still finds ways to score easily on its inside drives so when we look at this game Kansas basically was a shell of themselves you know they're missing McClure who was their best player uh Purdue or Purdue was a lot different than playing Kansas and when we look at this to five and a half points doesn't scare me at all I think Purdue wins this by double digits Purdue was the better team and when Gon
zaga scores less than 77 points they struggle to win I look for a Purdue win somewhere between eight and 12 points next up same region here in the Midwest we've got kraton versus Tennessee uh yes Joe bman I do mean tomorrow survive at Advance at noon will be with former National Champion still a national champion to this day he's got the ring and if you don't believe me just ask him he'll send you a picture of it even if he doesn't know you but let's get back to the game here we're going kraton
versus Tennessee for the right to play what I think will be Purdue in the Elite 8 now kraton is a team that can shoot the ball Tennessee has been inconsistent doton connect did not have a great blast game as Tennessee barely got past Texas what are we going to get here I mean the SEC has proven that they are a mess as a conference kraton on the other hand plays it a big East it basically only got three teams in but all three teams are national title contenders Yukon is the favorite to win at all
marquette's the favorite to win in the sweet 16 so you could possibly with a Katon win here have three teams all three teams from the Big East in the lead eight when we look at this matchup the question is going to be Tennessee is not exactly excelled on his finishing kick at the end of the season they've been extremely inconsistent over this season now after a rough win against Texas the voles might find some consistency or they have to find some consistency against kraton because kraton is a
team that can get on fire and blow you out quickly if you're not ready to score the basketball and Tennessee had issues scoring against Texas how do you beat Tennessee you hit from three that is the key their perimeter defense is not great now this is not an issue for the kraton Blue Jays they used a variety of different players to hit 15 threes during their exciting double overtime win over the Oregon Ducks kraton understands they need to maximize possessions through working the glass on both e
nds and they do this effectively Tennesse excels in controlling the defensive boards kraton can get to the glass from time to time but is not considered one of the most physical teams but they get to the glass enough so I don't think this is going to be a one-sided advantage on the boards well we look at the point spread here Tennessee is favored by two and a half my prediction kraton shoots the ball a lot better A lot more consistently they're solid on the glass and they don't foul so Tennessee
is going to have a hard time getting it a free throw line to win this game Tennessee will have to be consistent in All Phases and they have not shown the ability to do that for an entire 40 minutes on very many occasions this season so I I'm going to go with kraton I think you're going to get kraton against Purdue in the Elite 8 and I mean kraton has the three-point Shooters to be able to possibly beat Purdue now when we go to the next region we've got Duke versus Houston we've got NC State ver
sus Marquette you've got the possibility of an all ACC Elite eight even though the acc's caught a lot of crap they've still got three teams here and the Duke Houston matchup you got to worry a little bit about Houston just for what you saw against Texas A&M they blew almost a 13-point lead the last two minutes of the game but the thing about Houston is they're well coached with Kelvin Samson I know Indiana fans don't want to hear that but Kelvin Samson is a good coach they give up a last second
three on one of the best passes you're ever going to see up there with the Christian lner pass probably more difficult because he was running out of time he makes the pass Texas A&M hits to three you had four players missing that had fouled out when you go to that overtime and in the overtime Houston dominated the rest of that game now with duke it was almost like they flipped the switch at halftime at a Vermont game they struggled against Vermont in the first half second half they blew the door
s off of Vermont beating him 64 to 47 not particularly impressive it's Vermont but the game against James Madison was truly different Duke played their best game of the season they beat a very good James Madison Team 93- 55 and now while Duke got some serious overall production eight threes from Jared M McCain which you can't really get guarantee is gonna happen all the time they were prolific on the offensive end Duke found its playoff legs just in time now right now Houston is favored by four
and a half points and a lot of people thought Houston was a team that was going to advance to the Final Four this Duke team causes them some major issues I think Duke must keep the ball moving effectively and efficiently against Houston's guards and Houston's guards are going to be looking to take away the three from duke Duke's not going to be able to make the threes like they did against James Madison the whole key to this game to me is for Duke to avoid turnovers while increasing assist that
is what the blue Jil Blue Devils need to do to win this game against James Madison they had 22 assists and now won 21 consecutive matchups when dishing out 12 or more assists Houston has an aggressive offensive attack the offense gets overlooked because the defense is so good at times it may get lost because of their style of play like I just said but for all of that great defense of toughness with this team when they want to score they can do so and they can do it in bunches they attack constan
tly and when the defense for Duke is on its game it doesn't allow the other team's offense to catch their breath Duke has generally managed to overcome game overcome teams in games when his turnovers become excessive so double digit turnovers in this game is going to make it tough for Duke to win Houston's very good in transition offense and they can put up points quickly Houston has only failed to score 10 or more turnovers in four games this season as long as the Cougars prevent Duke from sett
ing settling into its Rhythm making this a physical battle on both ends the Tipo and style would tell me that Houston's going to win the game but my prediction on the game is this e even with the four and a half points I'm going to bet Duke to win because my odds with Duke to win I mean you're looking at plus 152 so if you bet 100 you win 152 I think Duke is the better defense or is better defensively than they're giving credit for and we saw Houston only score 47 Point all right we've seen Hous
ton get blown out by Iowa state where they had a hard time scoring they didn't score a lot of points there I think the Blue Devils are hot I think the Cougars are kind of struggling right now I like Duke in the upset in this game and I think that they advance to the elite a to take on the winner of the NC State Marquette game which the closest thing we have to a long shot in this outside of you got San Diego State but they were in a national championship game last year NC State is a team that ha
s come from nowhere they win the AC Championship they beat North Carolina and Duke two teams that are still here it almost looks like 1983 again where they ran through and they beat Duke they beat North Carolina and then they upset Virginia and Ralph Samson they went on the win a National Championship game I'm not saying this is what's going to happen in this game but NC State right now is a very dangerous basketball team Marquette on the other hand is a team that has been consistently good all
season they play in a Big East which is a tough conference especially it's a very topheavy conference now when you look at in NC State I think it's their ability to move the ball around the perimeter to generate easy shots the defense is drastically stronger and they've held oppon us to 39% or under 39% from the floor in each of the last four wins this is a team that you remember to start the ACC tournament I think they were 17 and 14 they were behind the freaking Louisville at halftime and it l
ooked like their head was going to get fired right now it looks like the head coach is probably going to get an extension now how can you beat Marquette you have to keep them from finding their shooting Groove when hitting at least 44% of its shots Marquette is 25- two while it falls to two and seven when they're under 44% of the shots so stopping the three-point shot was the key did the wolfpack's first two tournament wins over the last five games no team including that Oakland team that can de
finitely shoot the ball has managed to shoot 35% from three-point range Marquette boast an average three-point shooting percentage of 35.8 and as a team they are 14-0 when making 38% or better from three they know exactly how to create baskets North Carolina State excels at attacking the ball and forcing mistakes and they don't turn the ball over often to win North Carolina state must do what it does best they must move it around efficiently while looking for easy shots their fastpaced style req
uires patience as they wait their turn and taking what opportunities arrive they're very good at taking advantage of other teams mistakes now the point spread here is six and a half which does scare me a little bit but North Carolina state has been on fire over their last seven games Marquette has been consistent all season I think that consistently consistency leads to a Duke Marque Elite 8 matchup I'm going to go ahead I'm going to take Marquette I'm going to give the six and a half points her
e next up we've got Yukon against San Diego State this is a rematch of last year's National Championship game I think people forget last year Yukon dominated most of this game San Diego State did get back to within five or six points in the last five or six minutes before Yukon pulled away again I don't think this is an open and shed case on who wins this game San Diego State is a season team they were in the national championship game I don't think they're going to be afraid of Yukon they've al
ready played him that should be out of the way 10 and a half points is a lot of points here and let's face it I saw what was it Mike Greenberg on ESPN make an asinine comment yesterday asking who would win a seven game series between Yukon and the Boston Celtics well I'll tell you what I think the Boston Celtics would probably have beaten the first two opponents Yukon played much easier than what Yukon did that was a stupid statement but Yukon is trying to become the defending national champions
that's not something that has happened a lot and there are always pitfalls there are always roadblocks you don't expect to see in 1990 the UNLV team overran Duke by 30 points if you remember they struggled against Ball State in the sweet 16 and Chandler Thompson barely beat Ball State by a point or two so things do happen in situations like this is San Diego State you know can the Aztec duplicate their three-point shooting performance against Yale all right can this get them to the Elite 8 pull
the big upset against Yukon now at its worst hitting from outside has been a constant problem for the Aztecs they made 13 of 27 threes against Yale in that 8557 Victory but this is not Yale they're playing and to stay competitive San Diego State's probably going to have to hit 8 to 10 threes they have not shown the ability to consistently do that this season now the Aztec defense will have to stand tall against this great Yukon team especially inside you know they've got an experienced back cou
rt that's ad Dept at attacking and holding the road in the battle they have to force turnovers against Yukon which is hard to do now to think about Yukon is and it's the thing that is a little scary if you get a little foul trouble something like that the Huskies are not an extremely deep team nor does it Force an abundance of mistakes from its opponents Yukon is a team that is extremely well coached they do the right thing they don't force a lot of turnovers but they're not going to turn the ba
ll over a lot either and Yukon has some impressive offensive Firepower they got a little National Championship Swagger to them as well as size all across its roster you know but Donan kingan stands out among them as an aggressive inside player with enough power and skill to compete with San Diego's State star Jaden Le and he can even outplay Le and if he does that game's over now San Diego State was on fire against Yale they're gonna have to be on fire in this game also they possess Talent they
rebound well but the Huskies will simply outmuscle San Diego State and once you're on an 80 scoring run you're probably going to see an 80 scoring run three or four different times in this game so I'm going to say Yukon wins this game to advance to the Elite 8 they will beat San Diego State 81 to 65 take Yukon and give the points next up we've got an intriguing game we've got Illinois to fighting a Lon eye one of the two best teams in the Big 10 they're going to step up and they're going to play
the Iowa State Cyclones the Cyclones are a team that of course they're Don conference schedule gets ripped constantly but make no mistake about it this may be the best defensive team in the country if it's not the best it's in the top five Illinois is a team that his times has been inconsistent but they've got teren Shannon you got they've got the boss this is a team that could win a National Championship and Iowa state is a team that can also Iowa State you've got to worry offensively though a
nd I would think their offensive issues will make this team eventually come up short in this game Iowa State's favored by a point and a half now Iowa State overcame Washington State 67 to 57 be on some key late shots in the second half now is that is typical of their play style where they kind of grind you down with their defense and then they pull away at the end they play solid three-point defense they hit timely shots they forced 13 turnovers and they had multiple scores off those transition
their transition offense is extremely good Illinois cannot turn the ball over Illinois thrives when it gets the ball moving around the perimeter inside outside whether that means scoring fast break points or turning defensive rebounds into scoring opportunities they're one of the best teams in the country at that what it does poorly however is forc takeaways it ranks 348 nationally for mistakes caused and it doesn't always bring defensive intensity and focus you got to think playing in a sweet 1
6 you're going to bring defensive intensity and focus Iowa State doesn't make mistakes on the other hand so this is going to be a game where Iowa State's going to try to shorten the game they're going to try to have long possessions Illinois has a very long team this is their advantage I mean it seems like everybody in this team is six6 and taller including Terren Shannon who will later to go on to star in the NBA I think and everyone found ways to contribute on the boards everybody crashes the
glass Iowa state does rebound but not nearly enough on the defensive glass all right so that could be lack of opponent shots against Iowa State just because of Iowa state is so good and they have a a tendency to limit teams possessions number one and also Force teams down into the final 10 seconds to force up shots now I think Illinois could find itself powering through this Iowa State Defense they possess enough Firepower to subdue any defense Iowa State's rebounders and this is going to be the
issue they a 13 offensive rebounds and over 41 boards per game and they've won 16 consecutive games when they've Allowed no more than 24 29 rebounds to their opponent I think when picking this game Iowa State's favored by one I'm going to take Illinois I'm going to build Illinois to win this game I think it's going to be tight like 7168 but I think Illinois should dominate the boards and this is a bad match up for Iowa State I mean this is probably the worst team or one of the two worst teams t
hey could play right now so I think what we're going to see is I think we're going to see Illinois advance to play Yukon and what will be a highlevel great basketball game to go to the final four now we get to our final region out west we've got Alabama versus North Carolina these are two high-scoring basketball teams they can score in the hundreds if they have to and we've seen them do it multiple times you know but Alabama did play defense against Grand Canyon North Carolina's favored by three
and a half Grand Canyon only scored 61 points they only hit two of 23-point shots against the nation's 347th ranked scoring defense when the time came for an aggressive surge the Crimson Tide just did that the Bama defense will not be able to do the same to the Tar Heels but they just kind of got a hold serve occasionally that should be enough North Carolina basketball teams have always excelled when pushing up the energy and shooting the ball if you preser prefer an exhilarating and action-pac
ked experience North Carolina teams are the teams you want to watch they will ramp up the energy now bamb has won 16 consecutive games when scoring 89 or more points UNCC is unbeaten when making 48% or more of his shots they're 27 and four when shoot when hitting 38% or better from three Alabama's offensive Firepower puts North Carolina under immense pressure making shots should not be considered optional when competing against Bama unc's record when making more than 48% 11 and0 once again Alaba
ma allows teams to shoot 44% are better from the field I think this coach oats has done an outstanding job at Alabama and when you watch them play a really good Grand Canyon team that can score points the way they locked down on defense I think they could do that a little bit in this game if they could do that just a little bit they could pull the upset now I think these teams are going to score a lot of points this will be a tight game there's going to be a lot of lead changes this is the game
in the tournament I think at least up until this point Bama I think is a slightly better Coach team and they showed against Grand Canyon they can turn up the defense when needed I expect a close game I'm going to take bama into three and a half points I like Bama to win this game 9290 to advance to an elite eight matchup against the winner of the Clemson Arizona game so Clemson Arizona point spread here Arizona is favored by six and a half points now Clos is a team that finished the season on a
horrible note they got embarrassed in the ACC tournament and a lot of people thought they were going to lose in the first or the second round I mean the first round New Mexico people thought they were going to lose that game the second round people thought they were going to lose to Baylor but they're still here Arizona is a team that has a history of getting knocked off in that first weekend so their win against Dayton was huge and Dayton is a very good basketball team that spent much of the ye
ar in the top 25 Arizona played perfect in the first half they kind of dropped the ball a little in the second half let Dayton get back in the game but they did close it out I think that's got to be huge mentally for a team that suffered a catastrophic loss to Princeton last year under first round so will we break this game down all right these are two teams that people had some doubts about I think most people thought Arizona would be here I don't think too many people thought Clemson would and
Clemson did struggle down the stretch they were quickly eliminating the ACC tournament but they easily took out New Mexico and the bears with ease those are two solid basketball teams you know New Mexico and Baylor are not bad teams so this is a Clemson team that may be peing at the right time a Clemson also poses or possesses the size to compete against Arizona for the entire 40 minutes something Arizona has found hard to do a lot of times this season and although their guards may be smaller i
n stature this team excels on the defensive boards and they're excellent on the inside now what we saw this last weekend is the Arizona team we've been waiting for but the competition first round was easy no big deal the second round still worries me that the second half they didn't play near as well as they did in the first half now Arizona can be deadly when they're moving the ball but will they Arizona wants to get going early but if the game slows down too much that's what their size Factor
becomes a deciding factor would things begin to unravel and break down and they inevitably will for the nation's number one rebounding team Arizona they should have enough offensive rebounders on a roster to see them through it all on the boards I think this game will be close for most of the way I think the last 10 minutes I think we will see Arizona kind of pull away and I'll say the other thing is this Clipson is a very good free throw shooting team if they can get the line 20 to 25 times the
y have a chance to win this game or at least cover but the way I'm going to bet this is I'm going to take Arizona I'm going to give the and a half points I say Arizona wins this game 77 to 69 and really to think about not as many number 14 15 we don't have as many double digit seeds I don't think we're going to get a lot of blowouts and my final four right now is I would have Arizona playing Alabama I think Alabama beats them I would have Illinois Yukon I think Yukon wins and plays Alabama in th
e final four I think Duke plays Marquette I think Duke goes to the final four I think Purdue plays plays kraton I think Purdue goes to the final four I think we're setting up for an epic confrontation between Donovan kingan and Zack Edy for the National Championship in a couple weeks I can't wait to see that game I'm an Indiana hooer fan but we've already got five banners if Purdue has just one maybe that's not so bad Yukon will be shooting for what their sixth Banner in the last quarter Century
Yukon is the best program in college basketball in the last 25 years all right guys remember survive and Advance tomorrow with myself and my co-host 1981 National Champion Steve rizley as we will break down that first weekend of the tournament the quality of play the effect the transfer portal may have had on that and the nil money we'll also have a little bit more news we may talk a little you know little Los Angeles Dodger gambling scamble but make sure you check us out tomorrow make sure you
follow me at grueling troops make sure like subscribe hit the Bell notification button on YouTube and go bet all your games at bmgm the top sports book out there but for now I'm my good pastor you've been watching and listening to the grueling Truth where the Legends speak
Comments