Check the Net on Impact 89FM

This week on Check the Net, Impact 89FM’s College Basketball Podcast, join Eli, Porter, Kylee, Colin, and Josh as they take on Christmas Music, the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Andy Katz's conference picks, and (perhaps most importantly) the first week of the 2025 college basketball season!

Creators and Guests

Host
Colin Pearson
Host of the Check The Net Podcast, featuring all things NCAA basketball
EF
Host
Eli Flikkema
JL
Host
Josh Lee
Host
Kylee Tabler
msu jmc’26
PH
Host
Porter Holden

What is Check the Net on Impact 89FM?

Are you a fan of college hoops? Check the Net is a podcast that covers everything about the world of college basketball. Whether it is discussions regarding top teams and weekly rankings, updates on transfer portal and coaching news, or commentary on the latest major stories from around the game, Check the Net has got you covered. The podcast covers both men’s and women’s basketball across all Division I conferences. Check the Net is available through Impact 89FM’s website, as well as via all major audio platforms.

Eli:

Welcome back to Check the Net, Impact '80 nine's men's and women's college basketball podcast. I am your host this week, Eli Flickamah, and I am joined today by four other people who have been listening to Christmas music since August, Josh, Kylie, Porter,

Kylee:

I have not been doing that.

Colin:

You have?

Kylee:

No? No.

Eli:

I We are friends on earbuds. Know what music you listen to.

Kylee:

Again, that was because of a crash out, because of my homework. I had to do it.

Eli:

And where did you turn in your time of crisis? Christmas.

Kylee:

I turned into I turned to sad winter music.

Eli:

I'm sorry. No.

Colin:

And that's fair.

Kylee:

Yeah. See, Porter gets me. Porter gets me. I get you, Kylie. Yes.

Kylee:

Look. We because we know ball.

Eli:

You guys are just proving my point.

Colin:

Last year, I didn't start listening to Christmas music until December 15.

Eli:

Because

Porter:

you I do hate not

Colin:

plan on starting any earlier this year.

Eli:

Because you hate love and lights

Kylee:

And and whimsy, yes.

Colin:

I'm an engineer.

Kylee:

But Porter Porter is two and he's full of whimsy. Listen to him.

Porter:

I love joy and whimsy.

Josh:

So full of it.

Colin:

It's little jovial as he said

Kylee:

it. Yes.

Colin:

It's wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald season for me, and nothing can deter

Eli:

me Well, from yeah, that's also winter music.

Kylee:

So true.

Colin:

I disagree. Josh, what are

Kylee:

your feelings on the Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald?

Josh:

Insert Homer Simpson meme going into the bush. I'm out. Josh.

Colin:

So we learned before recording this podcast, as someone brought it up, that Josh didn't know what the Edmund Fitzgerald was.

Kylee:

Crazy.

Eli:

Until like, literally twenty minutes ago.

Josh:

Sacrilege. Not a dang clue what the heck you were talking about. And this

Colin:

is not some out of state student. I He's grew up From Michigan. Grew up Josh.

Josh:

I grew up an hour and a half from East Lansing, so yeah. I have no idea what we're talking about still. I John, good day.

Eli:

You list?

Porter:

I'm from Colorado, and I know what the wreck of Edmonton Fitzgerald is.

Josh:

I'll give you I'll give you a cookie

Kylee:

after this for that

Colin:

one. I'd love a cookie.

Kylee:

You get a gold star. Listen, there are way better things we get to make fun of Josh for later on

Eli:

So true. We gotta get it moving. Alright. We're gonna kick it off with women's basketball as usual. And this episode, we've got two more exhibition games to talk about that we didn't get to get to last episode because they hadn't happened yet.

Eli:

So our women's exhibition was number two, South Carolina versus number 11, North Carolina. And South Carolina won that one, ninety one to 82.

Kylee:

Woo hoo. The better the better Carolina won. The better Carolina won.

Colin:

I mean, only comment I have here is that North Carolina looked pretty strong against South Carolina, but South Carolina didn't. Watching the game, it didn't look like they were trying, which is wild considering they still won 91, 82.

Eli:

And they shot 50% from the fields.

Colin:

Yeah. And they just didn't look like they were trying. So I don't know if they're playing just effortless and I shooting 50% just for

Eli:

bet they listen to Christmas music.

Kylee:

No. I bet they

Colin:

don't. Full of whimsy.

Eli:

Exactly. Joy, whimsy, good basketball.

Kylee:

Mhmm. True.

Eli:

Those are It all all goes hand in hand. But,

Colin:

hey, North Carolina played a close game, gonna be contenders in the ACC. Yeah?

Josh:

Yeah. South Carolina will forever be the real deal. Under Don Staley, didn't anybody really expect anything different from this one? Mean Nope.

Colin:

I no, I'm just kidding.

Kylee:

I'm saying. No. It is. Anyone wanted to be Colin.

Josh:

But, I mean, like I said, real deal, Don Staley always you say that they weren't even trying their hardest and the fact that they beat number 11 by nine. I'm gonna go with Gamecocks basically all year long.

Kylee:

Yep. Yep. Finally locked in for Much

Colin:

more surprising if they lose than if they win.

Kylee:

That's per yuge.

Colin:

Yeah. Anyway, moving on.

Eli:

Yeah. Let's get to our first real game that really counted. Was Cal versus number 19 Vanderbilt in Paris, and Vandy won that 74 to 65. Oui. Oui play.

Eli:

Oui play. Play basketball.

Kylee:

Yeah, I mean, solid win for Vandy. I mean, for real. I mean, just, yeah.

Eli:

Mikayla Blake.

Kylee:

Mikayla Blake. Mikayla Blake.

Eli:

Yeah, she played all forty minutes for Vandy. She never left the court, and she dropped 27, a third of the Commodore's point total. But, yeah, this was a really, really good game until the third quarter, when Vandy won that ten minutes 24 to nine, and never looked back. Yikes.

Kylee:

Yeah, that's that's tough. I mean, but Cal is in a lot better shape than what I thought they were gonna be. You know, keep an eye out for Taylor Barnes from Cal. She had 17.6 rebounds, five assists, led the team led her team in two out of the three categories. I mean, it was pretty pretty solid.

Kylee:

Just keep an eye out for for them. They'll be it could make some noise, potentially.

Josh:

It was a really strong overall game for Cal. I mean, they had four players in double digits. But again, not enough to stop Mikayla Blake's. And we we've talked about it. She you mentioned it, Eli.

Josh:

She played all forty minutes. They traveled all the way to Paris from Nashville, then they're coming back from Paris to Nashville to play actual regular season basketball. Is this a sustainable this is not gonna be sustainable, especially it's only November. Yeah. It's a long way to go to March.

Josh:

And if Vanderbilt wants to be successful in March, if Vanderbilt wants to go far, it's gonna be dependent on how far she can take them. That was really Mikayla Blake's was the only real production for Vanderbilt.

Colin:

Mhmm.

Josh:

So if Vanderbilt wants to go far, they wanna make noise into March and they wanna sustain this for years to come, can it be sustainable playing Mikayla Blake's for forty minutes a night this early?

Eli:

And they're gonna have to score more than 74 points too.

Colin:

Yeah. Especially in the SCC.

Josh:

So really Vanderbilt can go far. Mhmm. How far can she take them?

Kylee:

Right. Exactly. Like they better hope that she stays healthy. Cal's real.

Colin:

Cal's got the depth, but not the star player. Vandy has the star player, but not the depth.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Eli:

Maybe they'll both even out by March.

Colin:

Yeah. Honestly, they very much could.

Porter:

One more note on Cal, though, ACC is strong this year. Yes. Yeah. There's a lot of really good teams in this ACC, so, I mean, they'll probably make the tournament, but we'll see how they end up doing in conference play.

Colin:

We're just gonna keep talking about those ACC teams today.

Eli:

Yeah,

Colin:

because got a we lot had of those.

Eli:

And we have one coming up. We've got number one Yukon versus number 20 Louisville. And though Louisville did lose 79 to 66, another strong ACC performance.

Colin:

Yeah. Yeah. I think this one's about what we all expected. You know, UConn winning by, what, 13 points?

Kylee:

Mhmm.

Colin:

I think it proves both teams are ranked about exactly where they should be. UConn at one, Louisville at 20. Like, that's about what we expect from those two teams.

Josh:

Mhmm.

Eli:

A little worrying from the Huskies though, is their long range shooting. They were only 15% from three, four of 26. Yes. Which is concerning. But Sarah Strong and Izzy Fudd both scored 20 points, and they were both on the court for thirty eight minutes, so.

Porter:

I mean, even with that poor shooting though, they still won by 13. Yeah. That says a lot about the team.

Kylee:

They don't need to shoot well to win.

Colin:

Yeah. I

Kylee:

I'm like, that's literally it.

Colin:

I'm gonna add into that. That 15% should at least partially be credited to Louisville's lockdown defense around the I watched the highlights of this game, and there was a lot of great defense from Louisville around the outside that kind of caused that 15% from three.

Kylee:

That's a good sign honestly Yeah, yeah,

Eli:

and because of that team defense they only lost by 13 when they should have lost by 30. Yeah, so congratulations to Louisville

Kylee:

That's you all can do. You just have to minimize the damage that UConn is gonna do to your team.

Josh:

Yeah. Yeah. You you mentioned UConn is just they just look so unstoppable for losing the production that they lost last season, and Paige Becker's been around the program for a long time. Gino and Paige had that strong relationship that was almost like father daughter the way that it was to still bring out talent like this. AZ Fudd, Sarah Strong, they are punching on so many levels.

Josh:

Four players in double digits. They got into a huge lead early on. So Gino is just such a good coach. She's so good at UConn. But one player I wanna mention for Louisville who had a good game was Lauren Ziegler.

Josh:

She had me make sure I get this correct. She had 16 points and 18 rebounds, seven of them on the offensive glass, and 11 them on the defensive glass. So watch out for her. Maybe Louisville Yeah. Louisville definitely looks like the team that should be ranked twentieth, but lots of poor shooting.

Josh:

They only shot 34% from the field, so that's another another criticism of them. Really, the only two people that shot well, Laura Ziegler and Amari Berry, who shot fifty and thirty three percent each had players shooting two of nine one of five two of 12 In the starting lineup. That's not good enough. No if you want to beat number lots

Eli:

of work to do yeah But shout out to Laura Ziegler our favorite mid major project product averaged a double double at Richmond last year. Yeah. She's so good. Yeah. Yeah.

Eli:

And let's let's round out our tour of the ACC's non conference schedule with number 16 Baylor versus number seven Duke, where the ACC lost once more 58 to 52.

Kylee:

Anyway, I was just all I'm gonna say is that I feel way better about not picking Duke between the ACC and I know Ball.

Colin:

Yeah, I've got a lot to say here, so just give it

Kylee:

a lot. Look,

Colin:

it's a rough one for all of us Duke pickers, which is everyone except for Kylie. Yes. This was a insanely defensive battle that I don't think Duke is going to see very often in the ACC. I think Baylor might see a little bit of it in the Big 12, but they're gonna have to be slightly better on offense to compete in the long term. I know they won this one, but someone has got to help Talia Scott for Baylor.

Colin:

She scored 24 of the 58 points.

Eli:

Holy cow.

Colin:

Ariana Littlebug bug or Littlepage Bugs, 10, 10 rebound double double for her. She helped as much as she could, but between those two you have 34 of your 58 points That's that's kind of rough there wasn't a whole lot of other star players

Kylee:

not a whole lot of offense going on

Colin:

a way not a lot of offense period yeah, but I've got a few funny stats from this game, including 34 combined turnovers between Yeah. The two Twenty three combined blocks between the two teams.

Eli:

Absolutely insane.

Colin:

And 91 rebounds between the two teams.

Porter:

I love that.

Colin:

Which is absurd. All of the above are

Eli:

absurd. So much defense.

Colin:

Both teams were shooting around 30%, around 20% from three. The way Baylor won this game was shooting 75% free throws compared to Duke's 60%. But frankly, I have lots of hope for both of these teams if they can figure out any form of offense against another team that's not playing this kind of defense. Because these two defensive teams obviously played a really close game, really low scoring game. You play a team that doesn't play as much defense, I wanna see where their offense goes.

Eli:

Yes. Absolutely. They were excellent at stifling each other.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Eli:

But, yeah, I think Baylor's offense will see more success in the Big twelve than they did against one of the best defensive teams in the country in Duke. Mhmm. But I'm a little bit worried about Duke's offense. But maybe Baylor's just really stepped up their defensive game this year.

Colin:

So Yeah. Watching it looked like Baylor really stepped up their defensive game this year.

Kylee:

Very exciting.

Colin:

Very similar styles of defense.

Eli:

I guess everybody was watching Duke last year and took notes.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Eli:

Alright. Let's leave the ACC behind briefly. Goodbye. And talk about Grand Canyon at number two South Carolina, where the Gamecocks took it 94 to 54. Yep.

Eli:

Sorry, Josh.

Josh:

Good good homecoming for Coach Winston Gundy, but again, not a shocker.

Kylee:

I would say more of a feel good game. I mean, I think that's what you said when

Josh:

you That's picked what I did say. I did not say that this was going to be lockstep. Grand Canyon was gonna give them a fight all the way, and I just said this would be cool for coach Winsenga and d to get a homecoming going back to South Carolina leaving mid tournament to go be the head coach over at Grand Canyon fun for him. Mhmm. But not surprising.

Kylee:

I was gonna say, and you could tell, like, I saw some some, like, clips and stuff from the game, like, you could tell he's very very adored by South Carolina fans and players and other coaches alike, so that was nice to see.

Eli:

Yeah. But South Carolina, once again, just warming up against what is a good basketball team. They held Grand Canyon to 27% from the field and shot nearly 60% in their 40 win.

Colin:

Well, that'll do it.

Eli:

That'll do it. Yep.

Kylee:

That's how you win games.

Eli:

Yep. Do you guys miss the ACC? Because I think we should talk about two more ACC games.

Colin:

I'm so down for two more ACC games.

Eli:

Let's kick it off. Let's kick off our reunion tour with the ACC with number eight Tennessee at number nine NC State, where NC State won 80 to 77.

Colin:

We had to separate this from the last one because the ACC team on this one won. Yeah. Exactly.

Kylee:

So true. We had to separate the winners from

Eli:

the losers. The ACC losers from the ACC winners. Yeah.

Colin:

This was the game we all hoped for.

Josh:

Mhmm.

Colin:

Right? I would love to see a tournament rematch between these two. A three point game between number eight and number nine, with number nine winning, like, just incredible.

Eli:

Yeah. Great game. Yeah.

Kylee:

Yeah. I mean, shout out to NC State for silencing our concerns about them. We talked about that extensively at the beginning of the year, so shout out to them. Tennessee's suffering a little bit. They saw the dismissal of one of their players this week who averaged 11.6 points per game.

Kylee:

Supposed to be a huge contributor. Unfortunately, was dismissed. So hopefully, they can bounce back from this and still continue to have a solid season.

Josh:

This was a good one to look over at our at our laptops when we were calling the Michigan State Mercyhurst game. We were looking over trying to keep up to date with what was going around in the world of or women's college basketball. And this was a good one to just have our eye on because these are two good teams. They're kind of that standard in women's college basketball, especially Tennessee over the last thirty something years. Yeah.

Josh:

They're that standard. So this was fun to look over to while we were calling the game. But NC State looks looks to continue to cause problems. But I have no doubt that Tennessee will be just fine. They this is a tough game regardless.

Josh:

You you went on the road to NC State in not in their home venue, but in their home state. So they're gonna have more of a size crowd advantage. But the Lady Vols just need to shoot better, and something that I talked about all of last season, and I will talk about more later in this episode, make your free throws.

Kylee:

Yeah. So true. Make

Josh:

your free throws

Eli:

Tennessee and you'll be missed six free throws, they shot 57% from the line, and they lost by three. And they also cut They out fouled NC State 23 to 10.

Josh:

Make your damn free throws.

Porter:

Speaking of free throws, not necessarily this game related, Missouri won 78 to 71 over Central Arkansas real fast.

Josh:

Oh, good for them. They finally got over their d two embarrassment.

Porter:

Yeah, they won by seven points. They shot 46 field goals Mhmm. Worth 20 of 46. They were 33 of 45 from the free throw line.

Eli:

Holy cow.

Kylee:

All right. Okay. I think that has led Josh to quit.

Eli:

Yeah, Josh has walked out of the building.

Porter:

So, if you want any indicator of free throws when basketball games.

Eli:

There you go.

Kylee:

They Yeah.

Colin:

Speaking of free throws when basketball games. Yeah.

Eli:

Josh, you gotta come back because we're not done with the ACC yet.

Kylee:

In free throws.

Colin:

Yay. And the ACC team won again.

Eli:

Yay. It was Radford at Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons took it 71 to 64.

Colin:

Oh, close one.

Eli:

And it was a very even game in every stat line, except for free throws. Wake Forest drew 24 fouls and only committed 13, which allowed them to shoot 30 free throws to Radford's 10.

Kylee:

Wow. That's crazy.

Colin:

And they won by Seven.

Eli:

But I believe they only made 20 of them.

Josh:

So Oh.

Eli:

And Radford was like seven for 10.

Kylee:

Josh is so tired, it's only gonna get worse.

Josh:

Oh, gosh. We have more free throws to come. I mean Yeah. Congrats, Wake Forest.

Eli:

You You escaped Radford

Josh:

Barely escaped, not great, but I guess a w's a w. This is gonna hurt my head the rest of this episode when we talk about free throws.

Eli:

The headache's only gonna get worse.

Porter:

Shoot well at the line, win games, drive, get fouled, repeat.

Kylee:

Facts.

Eli:

Win. Wake Forest's gonna win the ACC.

Kylee:

Clock it, that's what Porter said. Porter called it.

Eli:

He called it.

Colin:

There are not that many one and o teams in the ACC at this

Eli:

point, so

Kylee:

That is true, that is true.

Eli:

Porter, I'm changing your pick in the spreadsheet.

Colin:

Yep. Just bringing that up. Should we move on?

Eli:

But Radford did well.

Colin:

Yeah, Radford's gonna be a challenger, I think. I can't tell if Wake Forest is any good

Kylee:

No. Really? Really? Like,

Josh:

really not

Porter:

laying that

Josh:

question. Really?

Colin:

Bottom of the ACC level or like bottom of a mid major level?

Kylee:

Bottom Yes. Wake Forest will be bottom of the ACC.

Josh:

You really just asked if Wake Forest you really just asked that when they barely won by Well, no.

Colin:

No. Are they at the bottom of the ACC level or at the bottom of a mid major level?

Porter:

Both can be true.

Josh:

Both can be true.

Kylee:

Okay. There's be true.

Eli:

Two things can be true.

Colin:

And so you just wonder, I think Radford's a challenger to High Point in the Big South, but by how much? I don't know, man.

Eli:

Speaking of bad mid major teams. No. We've got poor, poor Kent State, who went on the road to challenge JMU in the Mac Sunbelt Challenge, and got absolutely blown out of the water, 80 to 48.

Kylee:

Now listen, Kent State is not a women's basketball school by any means. I'm a just put that Right. Out

Eli:

I mean, just utter domination from a Duke's team that all of us expect to once again be very good this year.

Kylee:

Yeah, a team we all love and wanna see thrive.

Josh:

Yeah. JMU being JMU, dominant win, and nothing surprising about

Porter:

it So at true.

Colin:

Yeah. Everything about that was expected.

Eli:

Yeah. Moving on.

Kylee:

Hooray. We're running through these fast, because these games, kinda lame.

Eli:

Hey. Not the The Battle of the Palouse is That not

Kylee:

That one's one's bad.

Eli:

It was Idaho at Washington State and Idaho won at the very end 87 to 85, which is a very close rivalry win for the Vandals. And Idaho's men's team also beat WSU in the other half of the road doubleheader, 83 to 81, another two point win. The Vandal women overcame an eight point halftime deficit to claim their first win over the Cougs in twenty two years. And this is also the first time that both Idaho teams have beaten Wazoo in the same season since 1984.

Kylee:

Oh, yeah.

Colin:

West Coast Conference basketball. What the

Kylee:

Thank you. Thank you for explaining to me why I should like care about it.

Eli:

It's a The battle of the Palouse is an amazing rivalry, and I love it.

Josh:

What on earth is going on with the wazoo right now? What on earth

Kylee:

is What the wazoo?

Josh:

Am winning the wazoo. Losing by losing to Idaho by two points on both sides of the both sides of men's and women's college basketball. Alright. Congrats to Idaho

Kylee:

for Yeah.

Josh:

Getting it done on both sides.

Kylee:

Eli thought I was originally from Idaho.

Eli:

Yeah. Our very first conversation, I was convinced Skyler was from Idaho the whole

Kylee:

time. And I didn't correct him.

Eli:

So

Colin:

I was

Kylee:

trying to make friends.

Eli:

Let's talk about Josh's hometown game, speaking of where people are from. We've got Central Michigan at Georgia Southern.

Kylee:

How does one go, Josh?

Josh:

Let's clarify one thing. This is not my hometown team.

Eli:

Game a

Josh:

because of some connections that

Eli:

that we discovered you have to both teams.

Josh:

Yeah. Girlfriend's brother was a team manager on central Michigan's women's basketball team last season and one of their one of his good friends that they all know is now a GA down at Georgia Southern. So this was a little interesting in our group chat to hear about that everybody was super excited for, but Georgia Southern absolutely dominated Central.

Eli:

So Yeah. 98 to 72.

Josh:

Sorry to Bailey and all of them.

Eli:

Sorry to the chips.

Colin:

Anything interesting about this game other than the score and Josh's connections?

Eli:

Both teams shot 50% from the field.

Josh:

Nice.

Eli:

But Georgia Southern was 54% from three, while CMU was 14%.

Colin:

So this was just who shot better threes?

Eli:

It's all about arc defense.

Colin:

Alright, fair enough. Yeah. And

Kylee:

then the game that we all have been waiting

Eli:

And the game that I definitely bought ORU plus to watch, it was NAIA Friends University at Oral Roberts, and the Golden Eagles won 97 to 65.

Kylee:

Wow.

Colin:

You know, Oral Roberts took down the power of friendship. Yeah. And that Yeah. It's gone now. Not That's cool.

Colin:

Really tough, guys.

Eli:

Look, they scored 41 points off of 34 turnovers by friends. Despite turning the ball over 20 times themselves. And 34 of those Friends turnovers were 20 or 22 of those turnovers were steals by Oral Roberts.

Kylee:

I'm sorry. Hold on. 20 turnovers against an NAIA team? I'm sorry. I'm blown away.

Colin:

It was the power of friendship, Kylie.

Josh:

I mean, I could if you want to talk about turnovers, I could mention Tuesday's game between MSU and Virtue Verse.

Eli:

We don't have to talk about it.

Josh:

We won't, but there was a lot of turnovers in that game and a lot of points off those turnovers. So poor friends, they could have really used Ross Geller's ball movement. They really could have used Joey Tribbiani's for lightness finishing in

Kylee:

this one. I read this earlier and I was so excited. Josh gets it, Josh gets it.

Josh:

My favorite show, I got to make a Friends reference on the College Bachelor's podcast.

Colin:

Chose to only mention Ross and Joey and not any of the women on the women's Wow. Sports

Eli:

are so fired. No Monica, no Phoebe.

Josh:

I think after what's about to come up, I think I might Ross,

Eli:

turn his mic off.

Porter:

Porter, this was a terrible game.

Kylee:

Wow, who picked this one?

Josh:

Wow, who picked

Colin:

that?

Porter:

Really bad. Yeah. I don't really know what to say. Know,

Kylee:

Oral Roberts

Porter:

won by 32. They also did not play good against

Eli:

the United by a lot more. Like,

Porter:

first, France putting up 65 points. That's great for them. They turned the ball over 34 times and scored 65 points.

Eli:

Yeah. Clearly, they would have beaten Baylor and Duke.

Kylee:

Yeah. Yeah.

Porter:

This game was this game was not fun. My friend at Friends, though, had a great time.

Eli:

Well, that's good.

Kylee:

I'm so good.

Eli:

And I'm happy

Josh:

for them. That's awesome.

Eli:

Alright, let's rattle off some upsets of the week.

Kylee:

I mean, mine's Baylor over Duke, just because I was really hyping about it. Yeah. No, you were. Yep. I still am.

Kylee:

I still am, because I know Paul.

Colin:

Yeah. I had Drexel over Pittsburgh, 68 to 60. In state game, go Dragons.

Eli:

I have

Josh:

Holy Cross knocking off Boston College, 72, 71.

Colin:

I'd like to say I was watching and list or listening to the radio call for the last, like, five minutes of this one, because it was awesome.

Eli:

And Porter Knows Ball.

Colin:

Yeah. And Porter knows ball picking Holy Cross to win. He's the only one of us who picked them to win their conference.

Porter:

Yeah. I can look at numbers on a page and go, sure.

Colin:

He knows ball.

Kylee:

You do that all the time.

Eli:

It's not

Kylee:

just like, what your future Yeah.

Eli:

Isn't that what you two do, like, constantly?

Colin:

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Pretty much, honestly.

Eli:

Alright. I've got Arkansas Pine Bluff, who upset Memphis off of a 25 to ten fourth quarter comeback Wow. And won 60 nine-sixty four for only their second win over Memphis in school history. And I'd like to give a quick honorable mention to D two West Alabama, who upset UAB 62 to 59 after trailing 32 to 21 at halftime.

Colin:

What a comeback, man. That's crazy.

Eli:

What about you D two hoopers?

Porter:

I got Lehigh beating Cincy 88 to 50 85.

Colin:

So we had two Patriot League over power five upsets.

Eli:

Nice

Colin:

call under me

Kylee:

calling me on the

Colin:

third person very long and I both picked Lehigh Porter picked holy cross Kylie and Eli both picked army and I don't know how we can

Kylee:

still no ball

Colin:

I have no picking army did but I don't think

Eli:

they upset a power conference about it

Colin:

But you know both of our picks maybe pace

Porter:

86 I

Kylee:

was gonna say, did they play a power conference opponent?

Colin:

Who is the power conference opponent? They play first. Oregon. Oregon. Okay.

Porter:

Sunday, November 16.

Colin:

We'll So be keeping place an your eye on bets.

Kylee:

Go army.

Eli:

Alright, let's talk, speaking of games that are coming up, let's talk about everybody's games for next week, starting with our power conferences.

Josh:

Woo hoo.

Eli:

Who wants to go first?

Colin:

You do, Eli. Yeah.

Eli:

Great. I've got number 24 Richmond at Number 4 Texas, which is happening Friday, November 7. What a game. Yeah. Richmond, basically a power conference team, beat Georgia Tech in the tournament last year, one of the best mid major teams in the country, ranked right now.

Kylee:

Woo hoo.

Eli:

Produced Laura Ziegler.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Eli:

Go Spiders.

Kylee:

Imagine if they still imagine if they still had her around this year, if she returned for another year.

Eli:

Yeah. And they're still ranked.

Kylee:

Yeah. And they Yeah, and they're still ranked.

Josh:

Without her. Crazy. Crazy.

Kylee:

Wow. Like, me and Colin and Sink, I'll go next. Go for it. I have number 13 Michigan versus Harvard. And I know Harvard's not really a power conference team, but we talk about them a lot.

Kylee:

On the women's side, the Ivy is a very fun conference. Yes. So I think this will be a cool matchup. We talked none of us picked Harvard in our preseason picks, but we mentioned them, and we talked about how they weren't proven. And I think this would be a good chance to see if they if we were all wrong and should have picked them.

Colin:

I'd like to comment my computer model flipped the coin and picked Princeton, not Harvard. But I originally had Harvard.

Eli:

Right, and then you didn't follow through.

Kylee:

Right. So if they do poorly, then your computer saved you.

Eli:

Yes. But if they win,

Kylee:

then it If they win, then it

Porter:

do. Convenient.

Eli:

Anyway, I hope they beat Michigan.

Kylee:

I do too. I think

Colin:

we all hope for that.

Eli:

Colin, what do you have?

Colin:

I had number six Oklahoma versus number three UCLA

Kylee:

Fun game.

Colin:

In Sacramento on November 10. That's awesome. A little Very neutral site fun game at the Kings Arena. That's so awesome.

Porter:

Yeah? I have Clemson at number two, South Carolina on November 11.

Kylee:

I wonder what's gonna happen.

Porter:

South Carolina also plays BGSU before Clemson.

Kylee:

Yes. BGSU.

Porter:

South Carolina over under, I don't know, minus 25 and a half.

Colin:

Against BGSU or perhaps? 25 is very

Kylee:

Yeah, against They're basically the same team.

Eli:

Both orange.

Kylee:

That is true. That was way too insane. But only one of them is in Ohio, so that's the one that matters I the

Porter:

it's an instate rivalry for Clemson, South Carolina.

Eli:

Yeah, it's the Palmetto

Kylee:

But Ohio. But Ohio.

Eli:

Right. For sure, for sure. Josh?

Josh:

And I've got number 18 traveling over to North Carolina to take on number

Kylee:

Who? Number 18?

Eli:

Number 18 who?

Kylee:

Just the number 18.

Josh:

Did I not say USC? No. No.

Colin:

My bad.

Josh:

The University of Southern taking on UAB who Just

Eli:

lost to a D2 team.

Porter:

Pounce back.

Josh:

So is it a bounce back? Or are they really just really not good?

Porter:

I

Colin:

for UAB's sake, don't lose to two back to back Alabama schools. Yeah. Otherwise

Eli:

You can't lose to West Alabama and South Alabama.

Colin:

You're really because then you gotta become Central Alabama

Eli:

Yeah.

Colin:

Instead of UAB. It really don't lose

Josh:

to North Alabama or whoever, other South Alabama.

Eli:

North Alabama is d one, though. So that wouldn't be terrible.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Colin:

So is South Alabama.

Eli:

Right. South Alabama is, but

Kylee:

Just don't lose all the direction there.

Porter:

They play Alabama A and M. It

Eli:

coming Is up East Alabama a school?

Colin:

I think there's, like, an East Alabama A and M.

Eli:

I'll let you research that while Porter tells us his game.

Porter:

I have my Ivy League pick, Columbia at Ohio.

Kylee:

Ohio mention. Sorry, guys. Half the Mac is in Ohio.

Eli:

You are terrible. I'm gonna go back to talking about South Carolina, because I've got Charleston Southern at College of Charleston on November 7. We've got the Crosstown Charleston Derby, which is

Colin:

That's fun.

Kylee:

I'm so excited. Who

Eli:

is who is Charleston? Who is Charleston? And where also? Yeah. But who and where?

Kylee:

Like the Charleston Shoe?

Eli:

South. Charleston is southern. How? Geography. I don't know, man.

Kylee:

I didn't make don't make Colin?

Colin:

Update on East Alabama East Alabama is not a thing simply because Troy Alabama and Auburn are all in Eastern Alabama and that would be too

Eli:

out of universities your game by the way

Colin:

my game is our consensus Missouri Valley pick Murray State versus our consensus Summit League pick South Dakota State

Eli:

nice fun

Colin:

I'm very excited for that one should be a really great game We're gonna see whether Murray State has a chance at like absolutely dominating the entire Missouri Valley. Hey. Because the Summit League, you know, South Dakota State's really good.

Kylee:

Yeah. They are? So Look. Porter, this is news to him.

Eli:

Look, you and I did lose to a Summit League opponent in their women's home opener this week. Mhmm. We lost to North Dakota State at the McLeod, and that's rough. Mhmm. But we're still gonna run the table.

Eli:

It's fine. Anyway, drum roll please.

Kylee:

Ready for my favorite segment.

Eli:

It's time for a special segment for this week only. Woo hoo. Andy Katz and the Mortifying Embarrassment of Josh Lee.

Kylee:

Yay. So Andy Katz scores came out this week. Andy Katz's picks.

Eli:

Okay. So, for those of us who might be new listeners, every week or every year, we all pick who's gonna win all the conferences and so does Andy Katz,

Colin:

who was in college

Eli:

basketball contributor.

Kylee:

Who is our number one. He's Number our one.

Eli:

Because we hate all of his opinions.

Kylee:

They're bad.

Eli:

And anyway, our similarity scores are in.

Kylee:

Basically, if you're super if your score's high and you're super similar

Eli:

Your opinions

Kylee:

are terrible. You're terrible.

Eli:

With least least agreement with 10 same champion picks, it's me and Colin.

Colin:

Hey, would you look that

Eli:

Handshake. Give me a handshake. Give me a handshake.

Kylee:

Agree. We'd agree with our

Colin:

half of the bad guys. I'd like to comment that I believe seven of our consensus picks were shared by IndyCats, and so that does contribute to that.

Eli:

Yeah. We were all gonna be above seven. Yeah. But Colin and I are the most right. All right.

Eli:

With medium embarrassment at 11 shared picks, it's Kylie and Porter.

Kylee:

Yay. I will say that compared to some of my counterparts, I only have one unique We'll get team.

Eli:

We'll get there. And at a truly mortifying level of embarrassment, so much he should be kicked off the podcast.

Kylee:

Josh Josh bullied himself into picking Creighton. Andy Katz was in his ear, and Josh was like, I wonder where that voice is coming from.

Eli:

The other thing we quantify is unique Andy agreements, where only you and Andy picked the same team to win the conference. And for Colin, that's Old Dominion to win the Sunbelt and St. Louis to win the A-ten

Colin:

to And I defend still buy one of those.

Eli:

Which one?

Colin:

St. Louis specifically. To the other get

Eli:

to the doesn't win by Old Dominion. For Kylie, it's just Cal Baptist to win the WAC.

Kylee:

I picked that on a whim. Because I wanna be different. We all pick different teams for the WAC.

Eli:

For me, it's just San Diego State to win the Mountain West.

Kylee:

And you know, that's

Eli:

fair. And I think they're going to, because we're gonna talk about why Kylie's pick was really bad later.

Kylee:

Yo, yo, Kylie's pick, that doesn't go against their record, I found that out today.

Eli:

For sure, for sure. Correct. Anyway, for Josh, it was Florida to win the SEC, Saint John's to win the Big East, Maine to win the America East.

Colin:

Which is a wild pick.

Eli:

And Colgate to win the Patriot League.

Kylee:

Josh, how we feeling?

Eli:

Defend yourself.

Colin:

No. Next. I just wanna say the first text I sent to everyone when I saw Andy had released his conferences was that he picked Maine, forgetting that Josh had also picked Oh,

Josh:

no. The only the only one that I stand by, and I think that it I know they had a bad We'll talk about it in a little bit. I still stand by Florida and SEC. That's okay.

Kylee:

The other one That's fair.

Josh:

I think Florida's gonna be a really good team.

Colin:

Saint John's is not a bad don't

Eli:

think these are terrible picks.

Kylee:

Colgate is also not a bad pick.

Colin:

Was As gonna say

Kylee:

we saw the other night.

Colin:

Colgate, Saint John's, Florida are all perfectly reasonable picks. Agreeing with Indy Cats

Eli:

Doesn't mean your opinions are bad. It just means they're boring.

Kylee:

Yes No, but it also inherently It means you're evil

Colin:

usually they don't work out.

Eli:

Yeah anyway We're gonna quickly turn to Porter because he uniquely agreed with Andy three times which was UC Santa Barbara to win the Big West, Memphis to win the American, and Sienna to win the MA.

Kylee:

Okay, because Memphis to win the American is such a bad choice.

Porter:

Okay, I will say, let me define myself first. Defend yourself. Memphis is gonna be wrong.

Eli:

Right. They're not defending yourself. That's not No.

Porter:

For the Big West and the Mac, we all chose different teams.

Colin:

That is correct.

Eli:

You just chose the wrong one.

Porter:

And so I just happened to choose

Eli:

The wrong one, twice.

Porter:

I had a 20% chance, and he happened to agree with me twice.

Eli:

So that's

Porter:

a, you know

Kylee:

because you know Ball though, so he was capping off

Colin:

the team. You agreed with him on a team whose mascot is named Gaucho.

Porter:

Correct.

Eli:

Right. A 4% chance.

Porter:

4%, yeah.

Eli:

And it hit. It hit?

Kylee:

So Yeah.

Porter:

Yeah. Mean Usually

Kylee:

don't gamble.

Porter:

At least it wasn't me picking, like, one team and then you all pick four, and then Andy agreed with me.

Eli:

Right. Because that would never That happen to anyone

Colin:

definitely happened to me

Eli:

on Yes.

Colin:

At least one occasion. Yes, did.

Kylee:

All right, fun segment. Everyone laugh at Josh one more time.

Josh:

I'm Virgil quitting.

Colin:

This is concluded.

Josh:

Stay for I'll my friends.

Kylee:

Next segment might actually put you over. These teams in these free throws might put you over the edge.

Eli:

That's true. We'll revisit whether or not you'll be back next week at the end of the episode. But let's talk about men's basketball. Our exhibition on this side was my homer game, which was D2 Upper Iowa at Northern Iowa, and the Cats won 96 to 67. Yeah.

Eli:

Despite only leading by one at half.net.

Kylee:

That's terrible.

Porter:

That's a

Colin:

little close for comfort at the half.

Eli:

It was 36 to 35.

Colin:

Look, that halftime locker room speech must have done something.

Eli:

Yeah.

Kylee:

I mean, yeah, it's probably like, I'll cancel all of your scholarships right now.

Eli:

Coach Jacobson has been at UNI for like twenty years now, so I I think he knows how to motivate a Panther team. But they pulled away by just purely out shooting UIU. They the Panthers finished the game shooting 60.7% from the field and 52.4% from three, and they also outrebounded the Peacocks 43 to 24.

Colin:

Nice. Very nice.

Kylee:

Yeah. Good job.

Eli:

Yay. Clap, clap, Go Cats. We're gonna win the valley.

Kylee:

Next, can we spend the least amount of time on

Eli:

this Yeah. We're gonna we're gonna talk at 1.5 times speed. So, our next game was Oakland at number seven Michigan, where Michigan won 121 to 78.

Colin:

Absurd offense from Michigan.

Kylee:

Yep. Low key crazy numbers.

Eli:

Yeah. Outer domination from the Maison Blue. They set a program record for points in the first half. They made 12 out of their 13 free throws and shot 64% from the field. And they also outrebounded the Golden Grizzlies, 40 to 22.

Josh:

Yeah, wow. Do they have to be good? But, oh, wow, wow, are they good?

Porter:

Maybe Michigan has figured it out. What's a learning curve?

Eli:

All right, moving on.

Kylee:

Perfect. All right. This one's fun. This is a game to talk about. This next one's fun one.

Eli:

We had number three Florida versus number 13 Arizona in Vegas, and Arizona won 93 to 87.

Kylee:

Yeah, I think we all kind of forgot about Arizona preseason.

Josh:

We did.

Kylee:

Were thinking about, like, making our picks and everything, because none of us picked them. Nope. I mean,

Porter:

the Big twelve's really good, though.

Kylee:

Yeah. I think

Colin:

Houston, BYU, Kansas State.

Kylee:

Yeah. Don't know

Porter:

Put them up there. Texas Tech.

Kylee:

Texas Tech,

Eli:

Kansas State. Hush. Who would

Josh:

pick them?

Kylee:

Who did that?

Eli:

At least Andy didn't.

Kylee:

They're gonna be contenders. They're gonna be contenders for sure. And we're gonna regret not remembering them.

Eli:

Anyway, Koaw Pete is a monster.

Colin:

Yeah.

Eli:

And he wasn't really talked about preseason as one of the best freshmen in the country, but he is.

Colin:

Very clearly

Eli:

because that's insane.

Josh:

Also, this freshman class is looking unreal so far. Yeah. All of them. All of them are looking so good. We're gonna get to another freshman later, but this is a little shocker for me because I I mean, we just talked about it.

Josh:

I have Florida up there. I really think that there's a really good chance that this team can go back to back, something that's very rarely done. But what a win for Arizona. I mean, this really I think we you just mentioned, Kylie. We weren't we weren't as high on them.

Josh:

This puts I feel like this can put them into the natty picture if they can continue this momentum because they had wins like this last season, but they just kinda fell off. Yeah. So Koaw Pete, Arizona, can they stay in the natty picture? But, man, this freshman class has gotta be the story so far in this season.

Porter:

They're gonna be a four seed going into March because they're always a four seed going Well,

Kylee:

no, but not this year because Caleb Love's not there anymore.

Porter:

Oh, that is so So there'll

Josh:

be there'll be a two seed and they'll go to the final four.

Kylee:

Or they'll be a two seed and get upset by 15 in the first

Colin:

It's either

Kylee:

or in IV school anyway

Colin:

all right call me crazy

Eli:

You're crazy

Colin:

an offense like Florida's only scoring 87 points on a top 15 team is not going to compete in the SEC

Kylee:

you gotta score at least 95

Eli:

It's game one

Colin:

And with that said, Arizona's certainly a Big 12 contender. Would not surprise me if they're a two seed. But I am scared for Florida's offense only scoring 87.

Kylee:

Maybe it's because Arizona plays some defense.

Eli:

Guys, it's so moist in Florida, and they had to play in the desert. They weren't ready.

Kylee:

That is true.

Colin:

Met that arena

Eli:

was so not humid at all. Right. Yeah. And that's just torture.

Colin:

Yeah. They can't shots when there's no humidity.

Eli:

Also, Josh, cover your ears. Florida missed 10 free throws in a

Colin:

six That's point it. I'll have to have. Yep. All right. Next.

Porter:

Yeah. I will say, though, Florida's struggling, not a surprise to me. No. I know. Because, I mean, they lost some players, you know, they did win the natty, Picked Kentucky for a reason.

Kylee:

And and you wanna know why? Because I also pick Kentucky. And Porter What do we know?

Porter:

We know ball. We know ball.

Eli:

Wrong. Arkansas is gonna win the SEC.

Josh:

We'll see you

Porter:

on Saturday.

Colin:

That's a wild thing to

Kylee:

just say out We'll see how this holds up on Saturday.

Eli:

Anyway, speaking of SEC teams, we also had Texas versus number six Duke in Charlotte.

Kylee:

This could have been really fun.

Eli:

And this almost was at halftime, this was really It was fun. It was. But by the end, end time, Duke won 75 to 60.

Kylee:

They remembered who they were. Duke shot 42% from the field, 40% from the three point line, and then only committed 10 turnovers to Texas to 16.

Eli:

Yeah, 16 long horn turnovers and abysmal 32.2% shooting from the field completely ruined their upset bid. Yeah. They just fell apart in the second half.

Kylee:

That would have been a fun upset.

Colin:

Duke's freshmen already look like they're in mid season form right now.

Eli:

Which is concerning.

Colin:

Specifically in the second half, they looked like that. You know, in the first half, not so much. Second half, already the freshmen were like, yep, we've played college basketball before. Will they slip up at some point and be slightly inconsistent because they're a team of mostly freshmen? Probably.

Colin:

Right? Will they compete when it matters though? Yeah.

Kylee:

Probably. Would say, last year, that team, also very talented, they lost. They lost a couple games early. Yep. Yep.

Kylee:

And then they went on and did not lose a single ACC game. And then made

Porter:

it to the final Here's the thing about Duke, right? They're gonna lose a couple games.

Kylee:

Yeah. And they're gonna be non conference, and they're gonna be two

Eli:

top probably gonna lose five the Champions Classic game.

Porter:

Yep. Yep. Then they're gonna run the table. And, like, even They're gonna be playing in ACC games and play bad. Their freshmen are gonna struggle because they're freshmen.

Porter:

And you know what? Duke's still gonna win basketball games because Duke is Duke, and that is what Duke does.

Kylee:

Yes. Yep. And that's what their freshmen do.

Eli:

Josh, you're back.

Josh:

Yeah. I got over my frustration with free throws.

Kylee:

He loves us so much.

Josh:

Yeah. He is despite how much I hate free throws. Duke is Duke. They are really good. They're just really good.

Josh:

They always do well with recruiting. John Shire has come in, not skipped a beat from coach k, recruits the freshman really well, plays good basketball. I'm really interested to see where Texas goes moving forward with Sean Miller, first year as head coach of Texas. They tried it with Rod and Terry. Just didn't work out.

Josh:

So I'm interested to see where he can get this program up to where they had hoped they would get under Chris Beard before he was let go for some off the court issues. So I think that'll be really interesting to see with Texas, but

Colin:

Yeah.

Josh:

Duke is Duke is my main takeaway.

Colin:

Might be a little bit. That SEC looks like a nightmare schedule this year.

Kylee:

Yeah. Always.

Eli:

Absolutely. Let's talk about the other Vegas game. We had Villanova versus number eight BYU, and BYU took it 71 to 66.

Kylee:

Woo hoo. Go Cougs. Neither team shot well from three, l o l. But Diebensta pulls through 21 points, solid win.

Eli:

Great debut.

Kylee:

Yeah. Also, Villanova turned the ball over 11 times. BYU turned the ball over four times. And four is a pretty good that's a solid game. Excellent.

Kylee:

It's a very good game.

Eli:

Especially in the first game.

Kylee:

Yeah. So I'm still impressed. I know the score might not reflect, like, necessarily how well BYU played, but

Josh:

Yeah.

Colin:

I I have two big takeaways. First is that BYU didn't look quite as deep as we thought. They're still just as talented. Yeah. But they didn't look like they had quite the same amount of depth as we thought they were gonna have.

Colin:

And that's okay. They'll be fine. But the other takeaway is I think Villanova and Kevin Willard just turned a lot of heads in the Big East. Yeah. Specifically Hurley said.

Colin:

He's not turning mine. He whipped around and, you know, took a quick glance and then whipped back and assumed, you know, his Yukon dominance again.

Eli:

It's okay. He won't have to play them in a multi team event.

Kylee:

Yeah.

Colin:

Yeah. Until the Big East championship.

Josh:

I think Kevin Willard really just missed Big East basketball. I mean, he was the head coach at Seton Hall, and he jumped over to Maryland. He had some good success with Maryland. Don't get me wrong.

Kylee:

Mhmm.

Josh:

But I feel like he just missed Biggie's basketball. So Kevin Willard doing exactly what I thought he would do at Villanova. It's hard to go into your first game going against a really good BYU team that has the deepest NIL pocket, I think, that any team has or any school has for a matter of fact. But AJ was an unreal game, but the bench was lackluster to say the least. Only seven points off the bench.

Josh:

Mhmm. Again, we talked about it earlier with Makayla Blake's and her being the being just a one woman show. If it's gonna be the starters for BYU, that's gonna be a little bit of a problem. You need something to come off the bench and provide some substance.

Kylee:

Mhmm.

Josh:

So, again, great win for BYU against a school that's all in on basketball. And I saw I saw a video earlier, especially with the schools that don't really have football. They can really invest those NIL money into basketball because they don't have to worry about football. So great showing for BYU. BYU has good football.

Josh:

Exactly. Yeah.

Colin:

Villanova. The

Josh:

cap the cap cap

Eli:

I would like to point out that Villanova does have a football team.

Josh:

Okay. Now nowhere near BYU. Yeah.

Colin:

Not quite the same thing.

Josh:

Because the cap's 20,000,000, and if you don't really have a football if you don't really have a football program, you can invest a lot of that cap into basketball. So great job for BYU.

Porter:

Yeah. I mean, I think one of the main concerns we had with BYU in the preseason was depth. Right? Yeah. They played their bench for most of the game, and then their bench kept on losing and was bad.

Porter:

So, like, you know, Perhaps think this that's is kind

Colin:

why they played the bench in the preseason. Yeah. Just to, like, give them more experience and try to jump start.

Eli:

Yeah. Think This would really work.

Kylee:

BYU is just gonna keep getting better, I in my

Porter:

hope so.

Kylee:

Hater, hater, hater.

Colin:

Lack of a bench will struggle a lot in the Big 12, so.

Eli:

I I want to point out quickly before we move on that Bryce Lindsay off the bench for Nova dropped 22, while no Wildcat starter made it to 10.

Kylee:

So they need better starters.

Eli:

So nobody needs better starters, and BYU needs a better bench.

Kylee:

They have opposite problems.

Colin:

I fear Bryce Lindsey will be Playing.

Eli:

Yeah. Shout out to Bryce.

Colin:

Will probably be starting.

Kylee:

Well, they make him a starter, then he's not gonna drop that many points. Has Well, to play

Colin:

he was a starter for James Madison last year. So like Yeah. Mhmm. And he I

Eli:

think I think both of these teams will be fine.

Colin:

Oh, yeah.

Eli:

Alright. Moving on to a game that

Kylee:

We could talk about forever.

Eli:

Basically all of us saw. We had Colgate at number 23 Michigan State, and the Spartans won 80 to 69.

Colin:

Yay. Alright. We're not gonna go too long on this one.

Kylee:

Alright, do we do also do one and a half time speed on this one?

Eli:

Yeah. Let's just take it top to bottom.

Kylee:

Colin.

Colin:

I think MSU controlled the game, but Colgate was shooting insane percentages for a while, they played pretty good ball. My biggest takeaway is that this team is just like last year's, where we are going to try new lineups for a while and see what fits best. Once it clicks, it'll be great. Hopefully, that's before the start of Big Ten play.

Kylee:

Free throws and outside shooting are the biggest issues right now, per usual. Our defensive rotations are still slow, but we have some scrappy new guys on the floor, and I'm excited to see them grow moving forward. We're always more critical on our teams than anything, so

Eli:

This game was very worrying for our chances against a certain team down the road, but maybe I'm just a pessimist. Also, can we please make a free throw?

Josh:

Yay, but positive news elsewhere with recruiting with more commits, maybe take that momentum into Arkansas.

Porter:

Yeah. Tomazzo said it best, not good. We need to shoot better from the charity stripe, but this is also our MO. We're in close, ugly games.

Eli:

Alright. Let's move on.

Kylee:

Beautiful. Porter, take it away.

Eli:

Mountain West Basketball. Colorado State,

Porter:

the incarnate word, 98 to 64.

Eli:

Say it with me now. SCORAMES.

Kylee:

SCORAMES. Was gonna say 30 win teams.

Colin:

Are going to

Kylee:

win teams.

Colin:

We have awarded Colorado State 30 wins Congratulations. For this to take

Porter:

A happy stat for you. Colorado State shot 27 of 30 from the free throw line.

Colin:

Yeah. Yay.

Josh:

Alright. That's our good stat.

Colin:

That's our takeaway from this game, I think.

Porter:

Yeah. I mean, Incarnate Word shot 57%, but we don't need to talk

Eli:

about We are going long here, so let's talk about the very first basketball game of the season that was played which was Winthrop versus Queens for the field of 68 Winthrop won that one eighty one to 74.

Kylee:

Yeah. Hurrah.

Colin:

Just just wanna say very briefly, Winthrop losing to Butler in the twenty seventeen NCAA tournament is one of my strongest memories from middle school for no There particular is

Kylee:

Was it a close game?

Colin:

No. What? No good reason that watching that in class should be one of my strongest memories from middle school, but here we are, Go Winthrop. They seemingly have some depth this year,

Eli:

so. Okay.

Josh:

Where did that come from?

Colin:

That's a great question.

Kylee:

The depths of Collins brain.

Eli:

Middle school, apparently.

Josh:

Okay. Shout out Austin Deller. Somehow Winthrop won this game with one of their leaders in shots, going two of 12 from the field.

Kylee:

Yikes.

Josh:

Not good. What a good win regardless if they can get consistent shooting for the group, watch out for Winthrop come March.

Eli:

Yeah. The field of sixty eight opening day marathon, half the games were at the Rock Hill Events Center, which is right down the road from Winthrop's campus. So this was basically a home game for them and their opener of the entire college basketball season. So, very fun game.

Colin:

Yeah. Yep. Alright.

Eli:

Speaking of the Field of sixty eight Opening Game Marathon, we've got a couple more games from that, that were all tell or that were all broadcast free on YouTube. We had High Point versus Furman, and High Point came away with the win 97 to 71.

Kylee:

Definitely thought this was gonna be closer.

Eli:

I thought we all I think we all thought this was gonna be a way better game than it was. Yeah. That's a lot to give up. I mean, Point shot 58% from the field, They were nine of 20 from three, and utterly dominated this game. Capitalized on 22 Furman turnovers, 17 of which were steals.

Eli:

Wow. They had as many steals as they had assists.

Colin:

Wow. 17 steals is absurd.

Kylee:

That's impressive.

Colin:

I think that won them this game.

Kylee:

Oh, yeah.

Eli:

The other team can't score if they don't have the ball,

Kylee:

so So true. Moving on, fun game.

Eli:

Yeah, fun game.

Kylee:

I had we had Omaha versus Murray State. I picked this one. Yeah. Murray State won, 80 five-seventy seven. Murray State in a wide open MBC.

Eli:

How dare you?

Kylee:

You and I was 30 to 35 at halftime against a d two

Eli:

team. And then we won by 29.

Kylee:

Right.

Eli:

And shot 60% from the field.

Kylee:

Murray State played another d one team. Our unanimous Summit League pick

Eli:

And they did not win by 29.

Kylee:

And they won. They won, though.

Eli:

Not by 29. By eight.

Kylee:

By, I guess, a d one school. Anyway, so Murray State in a wide open MVC could make some noise. Still confident in Omaha though for the Summit League. I think they're still gonna win

Eli:

it. I mean, yeah. What was really interesting to me was Omaha outshot Murray State in both field categories, but they utterly failed at fouling strategically. The racers from Murray State banked 30 of 33 from the Yes, free throw Josh. Excellent Yes.

Eli:

And the Mavs had to settle for only 13 of 18. That above all else powered this win.

Josh:

Good win good win for Murray State. Javon Jackson, take about 24 points and 10 of 10 from the free throw line. I have I have something to throw out there. If I keep seeing lines like this from Javon Jackson, we're gonna have another Rayshawn Taylor.

Colin:

Yay. Wow.

Josh:

Meaning, I will support the Javon Jackson and get a jersey or a shirt jersey of Javon Jackson come March time. Incredible.

Kylee:

Hey, yeah.

Eli:

Jon Jackson, if you're listening to this, we're rooting for you, dude.

Kylee:

We are.

Eli:

Keep making those free throws. You're Please. Our

Porter:

Omar Elhad needs to win basketball games,

Kylee:

so That is very true.

Colin:

Fair.

Eli:

Alright. Let's talk about our fun conference pick game. We had Colin's Sunbelt pick at my Mac pick, which was Old Dominion at Miami, and Miami won 87 to 72.

Kylee:

Hey, Colin, how's that Look. How's that going?

Colin:

It's a rough day to have picked Old Dominion to win the Sunbelt. That goes out to me and Andy Yeah. Ouch.

Kylee:

At least you're taking them down with you, After Colin. For

Colin:

Andy Katz picked them, I knew we weren't gonna win this game.

Josh:

Yeah. So

Eli:

And you know what? Miami's gonna win the Mac. No. Great start. No.

Eli:

Great start.

Kylee:

TOL, I know they lost. But TOL.

Colin:

EDO. Yeah, college. No. No.

Eli:

Alright, we've got another MAC Sunbelt Challenge game. We had Marshall at UMass for UMass's MAC debut, and it didn't go

Kylee:

well. Yay.

Eli:

Marshall won 70 eight-seventy two.

Kylee:

So whoever was spewing some UMass is gonna come in and do so well in the Mac. No.

Colin:

Yeah. Yep. No.

Josh:

Yep. Colin, speak

Eli:

Yeah. On Speak on that.

Kylee:

I think UMass

Colin:

is gonna learn some things from this loss, but I would call it a step back for this program.

Eli:

Yeah. Going into the Mac.

Kylee:

Wow, you think.

Colin:

Still, I think anything is possible in the Mac. It's early, but Yeah. Yeah, not a not a great sign.

Porter:

Is the Mac better than the eights not?

Kylee:

Yes. Only two things are certain. Go Mac basketball and Toledo will not be making the NCAA tournament.

Eli:

Okay. Josh, you might need to genuinely leave the room or the building.

Kylee:

What the building?

Eli:

The Minutemen missed 15 free throws. Oh. And lost by six.

Colin:

At home. Distraction free Yeah,

Eli:

no distractions. Home crowd. They made 21 of 36. What? Porter

Kylee:

is just Yikes. I

Josh:

just got done filming the Pylon a couple hours ago, and we did caveman segments, so I'm gonna speak like a caveman for this. Free throws, free throws make me angry. Me want to Hulk smash.

Eli:

That's valid. True. Let's make all of us feel better, but especially Porter by going back to Colorado.

Colin:

Yay. Yes.

Kylee:

We're going to Colorado, guys.

Porter:

Northern Colorado won 91 to 57. This game was way too close. Ten minutes into the first half, a d two school, Colorado College, was beating Northern Colorado. This was not making me very happy. And then Northern Colorado remembered that they are, in fact, a d one school.

Porter:

Go Bears. Go Bears.

Colin:

This game ended to the complete utter surprise of absolutely nobody, ninety one fifty seven.

Kylee:

I mean, apparently, to the surprise of everyone, about ten minutes into the Yeah.

Colin:

That's true.

Porter:

Colorado College was up 24 to 22.

Kylee:

Heck yeah.

Josh:

Wow. And,

Porter:

yeah, I was a little scared. But hey, Northern Colorado's got a chance to lose next week versus the d two school when they play Colorado Christian.

Eli:

So true.

Kylee:

Is that your next game of the week?

Colin:

Lots of

Eli:

colleges in Colorado with the acronym CC. Alright, let's talk about some upsets of the week, and I'm gonna go first because I want to. But we had D2 Hawaii Pacific, upset fifty third ranked in Ken Palm, Boise State, who Kylie Tabler picked to win the Mountain West.

Kylee:

All I'm gonna say is that this does not technically go on their record, because it is a D2 school. So, right now, Boise State is zero and zero.

Colin:

You know who the next D2 school Boise State plays? Who? Chaminade, another d2 school from Hawaii.

Eli:

Oh, you're so screwed.

Colin:

In the Maui.

Eli:

You're so screwed. Please,

Kylee:

please. Boise State, Boise State, please. I was such an advocate.

Colin:

Chaminade could win a Maui game,

Kylee:

guys. Such an advocate for you last year. I was a firm believer you shouldn't be the tournament. I'm piggybacking off that now. Don't let me down.

Kylee:

But even if they lose, it still will not go on the record because it's a t two school.

Eli:

Kylie, what was your upset pick?

Kylee:

Oh, yeah. New Orleans beat TCU.

Eli:

Which is awesome.

Kylee:

Which is so fire, 78 to 74. I'm a fan, yeah.

Eli:

Yep. So true.

Colin:

I had Florida Atlantic beating Boston College

Kylee:

Heck yeah.

Colin:

83 to 78.

Kylee:

BC took some Ls.

Eli:

Not a great wake, not a great week to be an Eagles Wake

Kylee:

as in Wake Forest?

Eli:

I'm still thinking about the wake behind the sharks of Hawaii Pacific as they left Boise with a win.

Porter:

I thought you meant we were throwing a wake for Boston College.

Colin:

That too. It'd be hard to stay awake at one of those games, which I would probably be at.

Josh:

Anyways, I know. I hate Josh. So I don't actually have an upset. I have Oregon somehow surviving on a last second shot against Hawaii

Kylee:

The other team from Hawaii.

Josh:

To win 60 to 59. This wasn't a road game. This was a home game for Oregon. So the fact that they had to survive on a last second shot when I believe a lot of us had have faith in Oregon to actually do pretty well.

Colin:

They have And saw that shot.

Kylee:

It was not play?

Colin:

It was a very lucky shot.

Josh:

I don't

Kylee:

think she'll I think she's out. Yeah. But they still have they still have Biddle. Yeah.

Josh:

Biddle. So, I mean, the fact that they're surviving against Hawaii

Kylee:

Maybe Hawaii is just balling.

Eli:

And this game was on television. This was on BTN. Yeah.

Porter:

Did you see when someone started at?

Eli:

Like Ten. Eleven? 11:30. Wonderous. I love West Coast basketball.

Kylee:

I love Big Ten West Coast good for those late nights.

Eli:

Porter, you got?

Porter:

I also don't have an upset, but Auburn took overtime to beat BCU.

Kylee:

And not like a and and define BCU, what's an action? There you go.

Colin:

Within Cookman.

Porter:

Within Cookman, yeah.

Eli:

Yeah. And ranked Auburn, by the way.

Kylee:

Yeah, ranked. 20.

Porter:

At home. Yeah. Mhmm. A powerhouse SEC school. Right.

Porter:

Yeah. A new head coach. Yeah, this was a home game.

Colin:

Really rough start to the Steven Pearl era.

Kylee:

Right.

Porter:

Yeah. '95 to fifty, ninety five to 92, so like, it was a close

Colin:

game. And I watched this Real? Or listened to the radio call at least. BCU had the lead by four with like 30 left.

Eli:

I really wanted them off.

Colin:

Two steals in the last minute to make this hap to make this go to overtime.

Eli:

PSA, SEC teams, play some defense once in a while.

Kylee:

Yeah. Maybe it'll help.

Colin:

It helps.

Josh:

It's a cool thing. It's really cool, I promise.

Eli:

Alright. Let's talk about next week. We've got some actually incredible power five games.

Kylee:

We do.

Eli:

All five of us have power five games where both of the teams are Even

Josh:

though maybe one of them shouldn't be.

Eli:

Josh, let's start with you.

Josh:

Well, one of the two of them that should be. I got number 14, Arkansas, coming up to East Lansing

Colin:

Woo hoo.

Josh:

To take on the 22 ranked Michigan State Spartans. All I can guarantee I will not guarantee a Michigan State win or an Arkansas win. All I will guarantee, Breslin Center will be buzzing. Oh my gosh. They have Michigan State's got Michigan State hockey beforehand, and I'm sure that place will be buzzing too, and everybody will head over to Breslin to watch that game.

Josh:

Breslin

Eli:

should be awesome.

Josh:

East Lansing's gonna Yeah. Be buzzing this

Eli:

You will not be able to park anywhere.

Josh:

Nope. You are screwed if you're trying to park.

Colin:

Yeah. Kylie, what you got?

Kylee:

Yeah. I have more Big 10. I have number 17, Illinois versus number 10, Texas Tech on November 10. I'm excited about this one. We we talked about Texas Tech being a sleeper team for a lot of us, especially in the tournament last year, but being a pretty good team this year.

Kylee:

And then Illinois just got a whole new team makeup, and so I'm really interested to see what that looks like against other p five, top 25, top 10 talent. Yeah. So, fun.

Porter:

I don't like either of these teams. Please have a draw.

Colin:

So true. See, I wanna watch this because I wanna watch at least one

Eli:

of them lose. Huge meteor. Huge meteor.

Kylee:

Who do I want to lose more? Honestly, think I want North Carolina to lose.

Colin:

No, I'm Kansas. Hunter Dickinson is gone. I want

Eli:

Kansas to win.

Kylee:

Yeah, Dickinson is finally gone.

Josh:

So true. Bill Self, Hubert Davis, I don't mind Hubert Davis as much as

Colin:

I don't like Bill Self.

Kylee:

I'm still salty about them making the tournament. Yeah.

Josh:

That's yeah.

Eli:

Okay. I've got more ACC home games. I've got number nine Kentucky at number 11 Louisville for the Commonwealth Cup.

Josh:

Fun. What

Eli:

a game. Louisville might finally put up a fight in this rivalry for the first time in like five years. Yeah. Yeah.

Colin:

It's gonna be fun.

Eli:

I I Look, it's the first time in, five years they have a chance.

Colin:

Certainly. Yeah.

Josh:

I'll give I'll give him that.

Colin:

I'd like to comment. I picked Louisville as my ACC champ.

Porter:

And Porter and I

Kylee:

picked Kentucky as our ACC champ.

Colin:

Yeah. Definitely rooting for Louisville here.

Eli:

Collin's got more ACC road games.

Colin:

I do. I have number 15 Alabama at number five St. John's in Madison Square Garden. Fun. An iconic battle of the best one of the best offenses of the country versus one of the best defenses in the country.

Colin:

I have no clue how it's going to go.

Kylee:

I think Bama's winning.

Colin:

I I don't know, man. Saint John's defense.

Kylee:

Yeah, but they got beat by Michigan exhibition, and that's an all offensive team as well.

Josh:

True. Michigan got beat by Cincinnati.

Kylee:

That was but that was before the Saint John's game.

Colin:

Yeah. So also, side note, we have another one

Kylee:

Woo hoo.

Colin:

That is kind of Power Five.

Kylee:

It is power. It is.

Eli:

I'm They're 100 tied

Kylee:

at 25.

Colin:

Yeah, they're both top 25. Number 23, Crate, and at number 21, Gonzaga.

Kylee:

Gonzaga's a p five team. That's yeah a

Colin:

fun one though.

Eli:

It's like Notre Dame football.

Colin:

Yeah, so that's why I didn't want to pick it as my power five but like

Eli:

games where ranked teams are playing each other this week. It's amazing speaking of teams aren't ranked, we've got some actually really fun small conference games, and I'm gonna go first because I know this is controversial. No,

Josh:

love it.

Colin:

Nope, not controversial But at

Eli:

the New Haven Chargers first home game as a d one basketball program is against Big 10 Penn State.

Colin:

I'd like to comment, Penn State

Kylee:

Almost lost, and then

Colin:

Nearly lost this week. To Fairfield. To

Kylee:

Fairfield. Their men's team, not their their men's team.

Eli:

Their men's

Kylee:

It's not good.

Eli:

Fairfield's men's And we talk a lot about Fairfield's women's team, but Fairfield's men's team.

Porter:

Yeah, New Haven could walk out with

Eli:

the weight. Haven I really

Colin:

put up

Eli:

a fight against UConn. Yeah. New Haven only lost to UConn by, like, 15.

Colin:

Yeah. Saw the road.

Eli:

Penn State at New Haven, because that's awesome.

Porter:

It is. Penn State is also ranked outside the top 100 in Kenpom, which, if you know anything about Kenpom, being a powerful school and being ranked outside the top 100 is very, very hard to do.

Eli:

Yeah. That's

Kylee:

rough. And they figured it out.

Eli:

But they did it.

Kylee:

Yes. Good for them.

Eli:

More home games in New England, Colin?

Colin:

Yeah, I've got Yale at Quinnipiac.

Kylee:

Yes, Quinnipiac. Another one.

Eli:

Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac.

Kylee:

Quinnipiac is back.

Colin:

It's another great game in the state of Connecticut.

Eli:

I forgot that we loved this rivalry so much last

Kylee:

you love this rivalry so so

Eli:

do love it. Yeah.

Colin:

Oh, yeah We all picked Yale. I believe it was just Kylie.

Kylee:

I think I'm the only one yeah, pick Quinnipiac,

Colin:

but like we all were considering You know that was a conference where we picked all different teams because it was the m double a c the Mac the Mac so very excited about Quinnipiac

Eli:

very excited for Quinnipiac

Colin:

Really hoping we get to see Yale New Haven Oh. Soon, too. Don't remember if they play when they play.

Eli:

Oh, we're gonna talk about Colorado State again next week. Surely that was Porter's game, right?

Kylee:

Yeah. Porter a 100% picks the Colorado State game, right?

Eli:

Right? No.

Colin:

I didn't.

Josh:

I did.

Kylee:

I thought about it too, Josh.

Josh:

Omaha taking on Colorado State on November 9. Is it a bounce back for Omaha? Or do we get a Happy Porter next week?

Porter:

Hopefully Happy Porter. 4PM, Mountain Time, Moby Arena, Fort Collins. Cinema. Cinema. Mountain West Network, here we

Eli:

go. Cinema.

Kylee:

Porter is so excited for that.

Eli:

Well, Porter, what did you pick then?

Porter:

I have Bethune Cookman going to Miami.

Kylee:

Yeah. That's incredible. Is where they get their upset.

Porter:

They're not playing a ranked team. Maybe it doesn't give them quite the same motivation, so maybe that's true.

Colin:

This is an in state now.

Eli:

It's in state.

Porter:

But it's

Kylee:

in state? P five.

Porter:

P five? I think you could see an upset.

Kylee:

I'm a fan.

Eli:

I really hope they pull it off. That's awesome.

Colin:

That'd be fun.

Eli:

Kylie, close us out.

Kylee:

Yes. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited about this one. We I have Loyal Chicago versus North Texas on November 9. Josh and I's American champ, our pick to win the American, playing in a gym that I've been to before.

Kylee:

Crazy. And, yeah, I'm just really excited. Loyal Chicago looks a lot better than what I thought they were this year, kind of regretting not not picking them, but it's okay. But I I I wanna say

Eli:

I mean, they needed a buzzer beater to beat Cleveland State.

Josh:

Yes. Hey, they won their first game after sister.

Kylee:

Yep. Yep.

Josh:

And that's all them out.

Eli:

And they're wearing an awesome patch on their It is

Kylee:

very cool.

Eli:

So, shout out to Loyola Chicago, still one of our favorite teams to root for as a podcast. Yes. But that will do it for us. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Check the Net on Impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with the station on Facebook, X, or Instagram at WDBM and at Impact eighty nine FM.

Eli:

This is our third full basketball season, and the chaos is just getting started. From here on out, we'll be talking about non conference games and other basketball news until conference play begins. This season's madness is only just beginning, and we can't wait to talk about it more next week on Check the Net.