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The State News sports reporters discuss all MSU sports.
(Bella) Hello, everybody and welcome back to the sports roundtable podcast. We're talking about everything MSU athletics. Today, I'm once again joined by my wonderful friend Justin, if you want to introduce yourself one more time, just for anybody who wasn't listening last time you were on
(Justin) Of course, my name is Justin. I'm super, super happy to be back. I was with my dearest friend Bella a few weeks ago, I am a student section leader for the zone and the monsters. And yeah, I'm super excited once again to talk about some sports talk about some March Madness. And yeah, let's just get right into it.
(Bella) Yeah, like you said, March Madness still is ramping up towards Elite Eight coming up tomorrow. But I want to really quick touch on the women's side of the tournament. MSU is not in it. But there have been some insane upsets. Most notably, I would say Miami upsetting Indiana. I did not expect that I had Indiana going to the elite or Yeah, I had them go into the Elite Eight. I thought they were gonna go way farther than they did. Yeah.
(Justin) Yeah, it's interesting, too, because I was actually thinking about this when I was watching and seeing the Skylines come out. I think this is kind of a theme that's starting to emerge within the men's in the woman's brackets, but especially in the woman's, I feel like if you've paid attention to the sport for the past 1015 years, there's always been super, super dominant one seeds, that's really just, you know, don't lose up into the tournament, even if, you know, even if they do lose. Teams, I'm thinking of our Yukon, South Carolina kind of recently, I know Notre Dame and Louisville kind of get sprinkled in there too. But I feel like I'm just so used to seeing the women's tournament and I'm so used to seeing UConn, go 30 now and make the title game and now they're starting to be a lot more parity within the last few years of of you know, IU losing this year and and Stanford actually losing as a one line to it. It's really weird seeing Stanford lose that early in the tournament also
(Bella) like you're saying there's so the teams as you're so good, like there are so many standout teams. And like I know I was seeing some viewership for the women's tournament is up like a lot like these are incredible athletes are incredible games if you like, if you've never watched a women's basketball game before and you turned on one game sometime during this month like you would enjoy it like it's incredible. Oh yeah. Stanford losing I just scrolled down remember that? That was incredible. I made last to Ole Miss.
(Justin) Yep. The crazy thing too with these is that it's the first round or two. I don't know if it's an extra one too. But I know these are at home sites. So Miami played at Indiana. And you know about somebody Halton possible will go and get a win and a call. So that's, that's a much more impressive feat than I think people are realizing too.
(Bella) Yeah, no, I definitely wasn't expecting that at all. But my my bracket, my final four still in it for the women's tournament. I've got South Carolina and Iowa and then LSU and UConn. I'm still feeling confident about that. Yeah. I got shaken up by the Indiana but
(Justin) no, Uconn, right?
(Bella) No, I have Yukon in there. Oh, you said you can't Yeah, they're in there. Got it. But I had Indiana losing to LSU eventually.
(Justin) Okay, so yeah. I'm very excited to see where this goes. So it'll be exciting. Very fun. Watch. I hope Caitlin Cox says and she's definitely my favorite player of all time.
(Bella) Do you think so?
(Justin) I think she's wonderful. I think she's done so much for the women's game. I think she, I think has Yes, I think she embodies the new like, the new era of basketball where you can pull up from the logo. And it's I don't want to call this a Steph Curry esque you know, era of basketball, but you definitely see this and like, and younger basketball players coming up in the game. It's like, the style of play is different. And I think Caitlin Clark really embodies that on the woman's side. And it's just so fun to watch. I really hope she goes far with with her Hawkeyes.
(Bella) I think she's going to they're a great team all around. I'm a big Angel Reese girl at the
moment, right? Yeah, I think she's incredible. She plays for LSU i don't know I'm that national championship game is gonna be so good. No matter who it is gonna be incredible.
(Justin) Huge fan of LSU coach too. I know I really love her. I think she's really a really great coach up and coming. She reminds me a lot of Pat Summitt to be honest.
(Bella) She does see she has I've seen some. I think on tick tock I see some videos that some of the players make and like the you can tell just by the way they're joking around with her that they have like such a good relationship and I think that's so important with anything
(Justin) so passionate. She's so energetic like you can tell she really just as an embodiment of what a college coach should be.
(Bella) Well, moving on over to the men's tournament now, how how's your bracket doing? How are your expectations?
(Justin) So my bracket is actually doing pretty well I am first in a lot of my groups either first or second, which feels great going into the second weekend. It was really interesting when I went to sit down and make the bracket I sat down a few different times and, you know, you pull up the different stats and the metrics and you know, I was on like kenpom and be like the BPI and all these different stats, right? And I was looking to see, you know, all the matchups and I had a moment a few hours before the brackets locked and I was just like, every year I do this, and I I tried to like make the best statistical pick and something crazy happens every time and I was like, You know what, let me just go based off feel for a lot of these picks and I switched up a lot of my stuff and it's it's worked out really well for me. You know, if you if you look at well, I'm sure we'll talk about this soon. But Purdue and Fairleigh Dickinson if you look at them from like a metric standpoint you would never ever pick for like Dickinson especially since they're on the 16th line.
(Bella) But that was such a fun game to watch. It was it was so good.
(Justin) I was cheering for for ftu
(Bella) Oh yeah, of course. Did you see like Coach going on your job already?
(Justin) Yes. Yeah. So from what it looked like it went it was him to Iona and Rick Pitino at Iona to Rick Pitino to St. John's.
(Bella) Okay. I actually didn't know where Rick Pitino went. But now as soon as i i was watching it. I was like he's about to get a job. And he did. I mean, like it was just so good. Yeah, I almost didn't even watch it because I was like, Okay, I know how it's gonna go course. I'm so glad it turned on though. Me too. Yeah, that that's the only game in the east side of the bracket that I got wrong, which I'm pretty, or the East quadrant. I'm pretty proud of that. I'm feeling not so confident going into Elite Eight I kind of I picked Kansas State to win against MSU. Okay, I've got clips, I kind of want to I wish I picked MSU now, yeah. They've just been playing so well. And I think it shocked a lot of people I was shocked i I was feeling nervous about the USC game. And seeing the way that they played after that. I was like, Oh, they can do it again.
(Justin) Well, that was one of those picks to where I was like, I had MSU out in the second round of Marquette. And I flipped that very last second because I was just like, How can I do this based off feeling emotion and all of me was just thinking there's no way a Tom Izzo team is gonna go down early, after something as impactful and traumatic as a school shooting. So, you know, I was I was thinking about that. And I was just like, there's no way that I can see them losing this early and I was like, let's end with the Final Four. Why not? You know, this, the school needs that more than ever, right?
(Bella) I mean, I said this last week, I have one where they're winning, winning at all like I can't just be bitter in every breath. But yeah, this one they've been playing really well. I think they do have the ability to pull off a final for now that I've seen them play I think I think emotions are running high but in like the best way possible. They're like channeling that into really great defensive play. They're obviously they're kind of struggling a little bit on the offensive end of the ball. They're not hitting threes like they normally do. But the way that they picked up defensively is helping them win these games.
(Justin) Sure. Yeah. I think Jaden Aikens is a huge cause of that Jenkins is just a wonderful defender he he moves his feet you know it gets in front of guys and really does everything you need to I think he's he's really just like the epitome of what it is. Oh, Guy is does all the little things. Right. And also, I think it's so cool. Obviously he's has come to form the past two games, which is really helpful because he great game. Yeah, he locks down the you know, the frontcourt.
(Bella) and you know, some people see like, when they look at stats for a player, they'll just look at how many points they had, which is obviously not a great way. Not everybody does this, but I see people talking about it a lot. Specifically, I'm thinking Willie Cole. He hasn't had great offensive games, but I think he's still like the rebound that he got at the end of Marquette. But he is Oh, pumping his fists that everybody like loved. Yeah, like It's little things like that. And I think he's still such a valuable asset on the floor, even if he's not hitting those shots.
(Justin) It's also an emotional experience leader to him, so you obviously can't replace someone like Lily call.
(Bella) Let's circle back to the Sweet 16 Because we did spend a lot of time on the east bracket. I was shocked when Kansas lost to Arkansas. That was not something I saw happening. And I had them going to the Final Four.
(Justin) Yes, I had Kansas losing to UConn, I believe. I Kansas was one of those picks that I had in the Final Four originally. And then I was like, let's, for some reason, I said, Let's go based off VO and no, I just didn't feel right to put them there two years in a row. And I guess worked out for me. I don't think I really had any real strategy there. I haven't been able to catch Kansas too much. But obviously, what a great program that Bill Self has gotten and obviously still headed in the right direction after a national title. But yeah, very shocking. And Arkansas is one of those teams I feel like that I never think is going to do well in March and they've strung a few decent years together here so well to see what they continue to do.
(Bella) Yeah, I didn't watch that game at all. I just saw the final score. But I do just looking at the matchup and what I've seen before I do still want to say I see UConn coming out of that game, but I crazier things have happened. Obviously, it's been a wild week. It's only been a week. Feels like much longer than that. Yeah. Oh, I also have this is moving back up to the Midwest quadrant. The Indiana men's team also lost to Miami. Yes. In the second round. Yes. I remember I was googling. I was trying to Google a scorer and I was not. I knew that the women's team had lost Miami. And I don't know why I had no idea who Indiana played in the men's tournament. And I kept thinking that I was getting like the wrong game. I was like, No, that's not what I'm looking for. But no both of them last Miami. I don't know much about Miami's team. And I almost put Indiana moving on from that game and then beating Houston. I ended up switching it last minute. But Indiana is such a great team. And I personally have them going the farthest out of any big 10 team.
(Justin) But I think that's a solid pick. And that's something I probably would have done for some reason. At first I had this kind of portion of the Midwest bracket flipped for a long time I wanted to pick Drake and Kent State to both win. And then something felt really wrong about putting Kent State in the sweet 16 And I'm really glad I I kind of readjusted their I ended up picking my home in Indiana to to win and I picked up Miami to be Indiana and for I did I picked because I think Jim Miranda is a great basketball coach. And he has had just some very sneaky good Miami teams and being in the ACC he kind of gets to hide a little bit from the blue bloods like Duke and Carolina and even on I don't know if you can cover to near blue blood, but just very stout ACC programs and he has put together a sneaky good and consistent basketball program down there in Coral Gables. And he's been able to do that the past few years because of a guard by the name of Isaiah Juan. And Isaiah led them on a run I want to say to the Elite Eight last year. And you know, once I kind of remembered that and I was like you know what, why not send them to the Sweet 16 And, and put them in a matchup with Houston and it ended up working out for me. So
(Bella) yeah, and I like that you said like sneaky good teams because you don't hear about Miami's basketball team a lot. At least the men's one I've heard quite a bit about the women's team, obviously because I was covering women's basketball that was forefront of my knowledge. But I'm I'm excited to see the Miami Houston matchup. I think that could be a really interesting game. Yeah. Yeah. It's really an upset.
(Justin) Yeah, I really think it's, it's a tale of you know, the teams that you kind of are looking at that are remaining. There's a few there's a few substantial like, you know, prominent college programs like UConn and and and you can probably throw Xavier in that mix and UCLA Gonzaga but you've also got the the Houston's the Alabama's the you know the Princeton's right so it's it's kind of a mix of both and I guess I'm off to see where that takes us.
(Bella) Yeah, Princeton. That's another one that's I would have never picked I would never ever Princeton. Yeah. Princeton's women's team also upset NC State. It was a 10 Seven. But I just remember that was I think it was the first time both their men and women's team advanced in the same year. And the men's team still going they've got Creighton to take on and normally I'm gonna emigrate and fan I'll pick Creighton, and I have them coming out of this matchup but
(Justin) I'm really interested to see how Creighton matches up with one of the forwards from Princeton. He really impressed me in the Arizona Game Tucson. at Baldwin. He is a very lengthy forward who can get to the rim and and get free brown rebounds and can go one on one with pretty much anyone. And he was really the X Factor for Princeton in the Arizona Game because he was able to just take over and he didn't really have to rely on the other four guards to get to the rim, he was able to make his own shot and create his own space for himself, which really jumped started, you know, a comeback there. So I'm really excited to see how Creighton kind of navigates that threat because he's become a force in that, that South region this year.
(Bella) Yeah. And then I do foresee whoever wins that game taking on Alabama. Don't like saying it. But I do see, I do see it happening. I don't think that San Diego State matches up. And Alabama has been so dominant so far in the tournament.
(Justin) Yeah, tough to pick them. I really didn't want to send them the Final Four. But I did. I did. And I played with that a lot. I was like, How can I avoid doing this? And it really didn't feel right.
(Bella) But I was banking on Virginia, taking them down. So that obviously didn't work out for me. But I think if Alabama goes up against Creighton or Princeton in the Elite Eight, they're going to go to the Final Four.
(Justin) And to go back to the Midwest bracket. I have not gotten a chance to watch a lot of Houston this year but it just feels it felt right for me to send Houston the Final Four with a final for Houston. Yeah,
(Bella) you know what, once you get there going to have a home crowd. It's Houston in Houston. It felt right. I feel I know I did that as well. And I just feel like that energy is going to help their great team obviously they wouldn't be the number one seed if they weren't I really do think that final for home crowd is going to completely elevate their game if they get to that point which I assume that they will
(Justin) and you know now that I think about it you've got Texas working with that same energy as well Texas has a huge you know alumni base throughout the state of Texas and throughout the country and just a massive brand really. So if if you got Houston and Texas and Natalie made that elite eight matchup working to go to an in state final for destination, I think that's going to be a possible one of the best games the tournament right there. I really like Texas as well. They have a Minnesota transfer guard Marcus Carr, who is just a very impressive guard. And I think guard play is going to kind of dictate that game if you should in Texas end up matching up.
(Bella) Where is type like Texas in Texas? That's a weird sentence. Like how close are they to Houston is I guess what I'm trying to say
(Justin) they're in Austin, Texas. So Austin is I want to say probably like three to five hours north. That's not that bad. And Houston. So the thing about Houston too, is Houston is definitely like a smaller brand. I don't know if their enrollment is much smaller. But I definitely know that Houston is is just a smaller basketball program.
(Bella) I mean, there's so many Texas fans, of course, yeah, Texas
(Justin) just like a national brand. Right. So it's like, I wouldn't even be surprised that that was like if if Texas and Houston like were to theoretically play in Houston for the Final Four, even though they can't, I wouldn't be surprised if it was like 5050 You know,
(Bella) and you know what, I had Penn State beating a&m In the first round. But I wanted that a&m, Texas Game. Next round.
(Justin) I did two I have that's a great rivalry and I'm sad. They don't play a lot now because they're in this different conferences. Well, I think that is a great rivalry that they got down there.
(Bella) That would have been a fun game. And I think that a&m could have pulled off the upset just I liked that team a lot. I think they're a great team. I've watched them a few times just during the season.
(Justin) And Julie's marvelous there too. So I was I was cheering from afar for him to right
(Bella) I say that like I didn't pick Penn State to move on.
(Justin) Well Penn State to I really liked with picket, so it felt it felt wrong to pick against that team there. Yeah,
(Bella) I mean, they're a great team. I thought they were gonna win anyway, I did. So just some sometimes you can think about it and dream. Yeah. I don't know. I do think it is wild that we're the last Michigan State is the last big 10 teams standing. I need to I told me that about a month ago, I would have been like
(Justin) Well, I was on here a few months ago. And we were like, well, this is just a you know, a competition between you know, produce the top and then there's like 12 Big 10 teams that are like battling it out and It you know, Purdue losing to a 16 seed is very just representative of their program. I feel like they do so well in the regular season, right they'll, they'll they might raise a band or for the regular season championship and they just struggled to get out of the second weekend. It's due. It's out of the first weekend, I should say,
(Bella) which is gotta be so frustrating. As a Purdue fan.
(Justin) Purdue Twitter was in shambles. On Purdue Twitter? Well, I saw a glimpse of it and it was not pretty.
(Bella) I don't think MSU Twitter would be pretty either. We lost a game like that
(Justin) Well, it wasn't pretty after Middle Tennessee a few years ago. So yeah, you can remember that. But you know, I actually saw a stat about that. It was like, you know, that game if you think back, middle Tennessee, just like, shot crazy. Well, like they shot like an insane percentage. And it someone compared it to like the FDU stat line. And I believe that UMBC Virginia, one, two, and they didn't shoot quite as well. So for us, and for Michigan State fans, it was kind of like an out to be like, okay, you know, we lost that game. They just shot like crazy. What can you do? Versus it seemed like after you and Purdue, it's like, you just got played, you know?
(Bella) Yeah. And this is circling back to the MTU thing. They are the shortest team and D one, I believe. And rewatching them go up against deck ed. I said this last week, I thought they were going to, like gang up on him, they knew that he shouldn't be able to get the ball or else they're gonna lose. And they did exactly that Zach Ed literally barely touched the ball, I feel like,
(Justin) which is crazy to think because you like people that know the game will pick these games because of like that matchup. It's like, if you're going against the smallest team in college basketball, who was like, you know, 200, and this metric and pretty was like top 10 And this other, you know, it's like, how could you even go about even thinking about picking that you don't. And that's what that to my March is just the greatest thing ever just so much parity. And I love Michigan State this year, too. I love how they're a seven-seed. i This team reminds me a lot of the Final Four team from 2015. So we had Travis Trice. Matt Costello, I believe, was in there, Denzel Valentine. And we were seventh seed that year also. And that felt like a very guard-heavy team that that kind of took us and we, we kind of relied on trace and Valentine to make a lot of our, our, our shots and our action happened. And it just feels so similar. And I really just, it felt right to throw them in the final for this year, just because of that context.
(Bella) And you know what, I see is always that thing that's like, Oh, they're going to the Sweet 16 For the first time since 2019. That wasn't that long ago. And it's like, obviously, it's campus. East Lansing, Michigan State fans. Like it's incredible. When the team does well. And I saw somebody say that, like, we're a little bit spoiled, because you want like, we haven't missed a tournament in so long. So you're like, oh, they lost in the second round, like, fire is Oh, like, this is awful. There, there's nothing you could do about that. There are teams who literally haven't made their tournament and yours. Yeah, it's so funny to just see, like, first time since 2020 Night team,
(Justin) Oh, and MSU Twitter gets in, like in shambles. Like it. It just, it's funny every time that comes up, because whenever we have conversations about Izzo and you know, we're obviously like, as a fan base. And as fans for it, we're more than acceptable. It's more than acceptable to critique, critique, and, you know, talk about things and talk about sports, because that's what we love to do. Right. But even for friends that aren't a part of the Michigan State community, I think are a little, you know, prime to the fact that it was just always there. So when people have conversations about ozone March and all these things, it's, you know, I think we as a fan base can feel spoiled. And that does come across sometimes. But I also think other people across the country just like, forget that how this is like so rare. This is incredibly rare. I think it's the longest streak besides Kansas, I think, which is in tournament appearances, which is just like wild. And sometimes I think people just forget that. That doesn't happen everywhere else. And I think we do too.
(Bella) And like I grew up as a Michigan State fan, so I'm like, Oh, yeah. tournament time. Yeah. Like I've never been alive when Michigan State wasn't in the tournament. Yeah. But bringing it back to Michigan State Twitter, some. Sometimes I have to just log out i i saw somebody. So the game against USC was on St. Patrick's Day. which is a crazy day to begin with. And Michigan State one people are excited. I saw on the barstool account, somebody ended up burning a couch. I'm not here to tell you whether or not you should do that. That's not my place. But I saw like a random adult on Twitter just being like, this is shallow water energy. Like, why are you doing this? It's the first round of a tournament. Let the kids have fun. I don't know, like, you know what I mean?
(Justin) Lots of opinions about a lot of it is time all the time.
(Bella) And it's like you're so far removed from college and like, it's St. Patrick's Day, everybody's having a good time. And obviously, given the past month that we've had, like, I had to put my phone down. I was like, come on,
(Justin) that would frustrate me to see that, especially with that term. Like, isn't that the shallow water, deep water stuff that we've got? We've had gone for the past few years. We just it's going off that we have our own little like community and our own little lingo now. It's really funny. It's, you know, I'm sure other fan bases look at it. And they're like, What, what's going on over there? But yeah, I mean, let's just like, let us have fun up here. We've had a really rough, you know, past few weeks past month, and it's just going off of that. It's been also really great to see how much this has brought us together, just like everything else. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think we need to find a former than ever, like I said, so, you know, seeing how that would transform this campus. More than it already has been? You know, I really hope that ends up happening for us.
(Bella) Yeah. And I think you know what, I will never tell people not to have fun. Unless you're like harming someone. Don't do that. But like, you're allowed to get excited about your basketball team winning a game. It's a tournament. Yeah. Why don't you enjoy it? Life is short. It is you only have four years in college. And I'm not saying you can't do it after. It's just I don't know. It's different. It's a whole little community. It's your own little world. Well, thank you so much again for joining me. I really appreciate it. Once again, this is the sports roundtable podcast and you can get it wherever you find your podcasts.