Welcome back to Check the Net, Impact eighty nine's men's and women's college basketball podcast. I am your host, Kylie Taber, and I'm joined by the members of my Spotify wrapped party, Eli Porter and Josh. Hooray. Colin was invited, but rejected my invitation, I e, he's swamped and studying for finals.

So we locked him out of the studio.

So we locked him out of the studio and he's graduating soon, so he wants to do that.

So he really does have more important things to be doing.

Which is really unfortunate. But next time, he will be a part of our Spotify wrapped party.

This is very weird. We talked about it before before we came on. I'm sitting in the host seat and this feels very weird.

Josh and I were looking at each other directly at

his I know right. Instead of being across the table from each other, I'm literal I can literally see all of you face to face. This is very weird. I don't To like being in the

all our audio listeners, usually the four of us kind of sit in this like weird semi circle around Colin. But because Colin's not here, Josh is in the middle of the semi circle. So we're actually making eye contact with him.

You're in the hot seat.

Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it. This feels weird, but we are about to do an unscripted mess.

That is true. This is preview for no. Preview for next semester.

Yes. It's an unscripted mess because it's been two weeks, and there was so much basketball over feast week, and we didn't have an episode last week, so we've got two weeks of basketball to talk about. And we're kind of just gonna go based on what our big takeaways were, because we all did actually watch a lot of basketball Yes. While we were home. So we're gonna talk about what we saw, talk about some of the games we did pick out two weeks ago.

Yeah. It'll be entertaining, probably.

Porter, you have something to add about Spotify wrapped.

Oh, yeah, I listen to Happy Music.

No, he doesn't.

That's such a lie.

I don't believe literally

lying to you.

I don't believe it after what I saw.

No. And if you guys if y'all didn't know, Eli is the most loyal Check the Net listener on Spotify.

Didn't I see it on your Instagram story? Was like point o o o one?

True. I listened to like one thousand six hundred minutes of Check the Net this year.

Yep. Well done. Well done.

Well Well done. Makes up for me listening to zero because I can't listen to my own voice.

I I might be our global top listener and that's really embarrassing.

No. That's a That's a flex. You should be proud of that. Yes. So brief recap of women's basketball last week.

We're all gonna give one word to describe it because why not? And I and and since I'm hosting, like Colin, I like to play games. So we're gonna give it one word, and I'm not gonna go first.

Well, that's just rude.

Yep. Because I'm the host and I make the rules.

Does anybody actually wanna go first or are we

Thrilling.

I'm gonna go with formative.

I don't know how the heck to follow that one up. Formative?

Just a word for basketball last week.

Oh, relaxing. Because it was nice to relax after eating Thanksgiving dinner and to watch some basketball.

So true, so true. I mean, could say devastating, but that's not and and I would say, no, yeah, I'm just gonna stick with devastating and then I could just go into explaining why, because in my opinion, this game was like the best one to watch.

Okay. Let's do

We're gonna segue into the Las Vegas games. We had there were four teams there. It was Texas, Duke, South Carolina and UCLA were all there. So that is two, three and four in the AP.

And then Duke.

And then Duke, who was preseason ranked like, what, five?

They were up there.

They were up there. So the tables have turned for the Blue Devils, but still nonetheless, a lot of really good games going on. And I mean, we could briefly talk about the first set of games. I want let's talk about Texas UCLA. That game was really interesting in in in my in my humble opinion.

I agree.

I was really UCLA was down by 16. Yeah. Halfway through the game, and I

was shocked.

At halftime, they were down by 20.

Mhmm. And I was completely shocked. I was like, I thought that UCLA was gonna have a handle on that game, honestly. I mean, but Lauren Betts was really the only one doing anything. Kiki Rice did not really start playing until, like, the fourth quarter.

Yeah. But Lauren Betts looking at just looking at the box score, Lauren Betts finished only with eight. And, typically, when UCLA is really rolling, she's in double figures. She's pushing closer to 15 points, not eight. Keke Rice ended up being the leading scorer for UCLA with 17, but only shot four of 12 from the field.

But I feel like this is more indicative on Texas and how they've been able to restructure. Madison Booker, who's still there. She's a force with 16 points, only shot six to 17 from the field, but Rory Harmon had

Amazing a great game.

Played all forty minutes and then got 26 points. She was nine of 15 from the field. You guys know how much I like this one. Six to six from the free throw line. Nice.

So Texas might be really, really good.

They are well, they are

really, really good. They are really,

really good. I mean, no surprise to us briefly, South Carolina beat Duke pretty pretty handily.

Poor poor

Duke. They're just they just don't look good. And so, South Carolina beat them pretty handily.

My ACC pick not looking too hot.

No. Right now. Everybody's but mine. At least mine's still Notre Dame's still ranked, aren't they?

Yes. Yes.

At least mine's still ranked.

Another 30 loss to Michigan.

Yeah. But they're still up there.

I I think it's important to point out that UCLA only played six players and they all played more than thirty minutes.

Ouch.

Like, they did not have a bench. They had one player coming off the bench and she played more than two of their starters. But all six of their players put in at least thirty minutes.

Luckily, that'll fly in the big 10, right?

Yeah, totally.

Yeah. I know for sure for sure for sure.

Until Robin Frey like play plays press defense for all forty minutes.

And then throws in like nine different throws in nine different players that can all play.

Like two of them are twins and they can do different things, so you have to tell them apart.

My gosh, that is impossible for people that are just listening now. I'm our commentator for women's basketball, and that is one of the most difficult things that I've had to try and do is discern between Amy Tarion and Anatarian on the basketball court, because they literally look the exact same

from But the press

you're getting there.

Yes, slowly And but we're proud of you. Yes. Thank you.

But yeah, that's definitely something that I am very, all of the sudden, pretty much basically out of nowhere, very worried about for UCLA.

Yeah, that cannot be the norm moving forward. I mean, they bounced back against Duke.

Well

For Duke?

Duke. Duke. Duke.

Beat Duke by 30.

Wow. You're hurting my heart to your point.

Does that say more about Duke or does that say more about UCLA? Duke.

Duke. Duke a 100%.

Yeah.

Duke is three and five on the season so far with losses to South Florida, West Virginia, Of course, I got an ad on ESPN as I'm talking about it. Nice.

Of course.

South Florida?

South Florida, and then obviously losing to South Carolina and UCLA, and starting off the season losing to Baylor.

And they got LSU up next.

Great. Wow.

Poor Duke.

Yeah. But Texas South Carolina, I I I've sat down, I watched his entire game. I I watched it start to finish. I was seated. I was really excited.

I made everyone in my house be quiet so I could watch.

Tell us about it.

Texas won.

Really?

Yeah. And I was they couldn't South Carolina couldn't buy a bucket. Watching this game, they could not buy a bucket. Like, I was I mean, their shot selection, they was not bad. They were taking good shots.

You know? I mean, their their cuts were good. They passed through they just could not buy a bucket. And then when they would build up some momentum, some lead, they would have a brief moment on defense, and Madison Booker is, like, charging right down to that short corner where she's automatic from and continuing to to score those points. I mean, it was it was it was a great game.

I'm not gonna lie. It was really fun to watch, but it was painful that South Carolina could not

couldn't put it away.

Yeah. I think that offensive draft I think they're really missing Chloe Kitts. I think they're missing Yeah. Her veteran post presence. Because she had a good year last.

She's had a good year the past couple good years. So I think they're really missing her this year.

Yeah. Just looking at the box score, it's not like Texas had I mean, there's one category where you're like, oh, that's where Texas had a little bit of a sizable advantage. But realistically, looking at the box score, they're both around 42% from the field. South Carolina made one more three, but they both shot minimally from beyond the arc.

They did not shoot a lot from outside.

Texas had three extra made free throws, but they had relative they had shot the same from the free throw line. Assists, South Carolina had the advantage. Turnover South Carolina had the advantage. Steals roughly the same. Blocks roughly the same.

The only statistical category that really stands out is Texas had seven more rebounds. But again, seven is not Mhmm. Gonna make that much of a difference, especially when Although this this category, five extra offensive rebounds for the

long That's that's the thing.

In a two point game.

That's gonna matter. Yeah. Mhmm.

That will matter.

Yeah. And even if, I mean, if they're taking like similar amounts of shots and they're shooting, you know, relatively like they're shooting around the same amount and South Carolina makes two more of those baths of those bunnies that bounce out of the rim, they win. So it's just it was just really interesting. It was just a really interesting game.

Luckily, they get one more Yeah.

And it's at home. It

is at home.

And then they'll have The tournament.

Yeah. In conference play, Texas and South Carolina only play each other once this year.

Mhmm. So Was

this a non conference game?

Yes. Yeah. It doesn't count

towards conference get records. Two more shots at them, probably.

They will also see each other in the SEC tournament, yes.

Unless LSU I mean, that game

on in January will probably decide the SEC.

Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

But I am interested in what you what LSU is gonna look like. They haven't really played I don't know any notable notable games, I feel like. Like, we really have not talked we really have not talked about them at all.

You just took took the point. Was gonna say, I don't think we really talked about them because looking at their schedule, they've played Houston Christian, Southeast Louisiana, Georgia Southern, Charlotte, Tulane, Alcorn State, Marist, and Washington State. They finally play a power five conference game against Duke coming up on well, tomorrow as we're recording this.

Yes. Be beating and beating and battered Duke over here.

Yeah. But the rest of their non conference schedule is New Orleans, Louisiana Tech, Morgan State, UT Arlington, Alabama State, then they get into conference play against Kentucky on New Year's Day. Yeah. So LSU really hasn't tested themselves. LSU led by Kim Mulkey and everyone down there, they'll be I mean, they'll be fine, but they're not really testing themselves to the mark that I would expect them to.

No. And I'm Preseason, the Duke game would have been a you know, you're scheduling that because it's a great test. It's against a great ACC team. Compared to so many other games that all these other massive power player programs are scheduling, like Notre Dame in Michigan, Michigan and Yukon, Oklahoma and UCLA, the whole Vegas invite. Like, all these other heavy hitter programs are playing like four to five of these premier non conference games, and LSU only really scheduled one.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And I think going into like a conf like, going into the SEC where it's it's been dominated the past, like, ever since Texas hopped over. I mean, Texas and South Carolina have been, you know, in a in a battle for the top of the conference. You would think that they that LSU would want to prepare.

Yeah. Because it's looking at LSU's schedule, it's a gauntlet. It really is. Yeah. To start out, you got Kentucky seventeenth in the country, Vanderbilt fifteenth in the country, Georgia, number two Texas, number nine Oklahoma, get a couple filler games, then you go on the road to Texas, on the road to Auburn, South Carolina at Ole Miss.

I mean, SEC is a gauntlet Mhmm. Whichever way you look at it. So I'm surprised Kimmelke didn't really schedule a harder non conference schedule, especially going on the road. They did not leave essentially the South Southeast portion of the country.

Yeah. And one of their road games was Tulane, which is New Orleans.

It's yeah. They're just I just don't think they're gonna be well equipped for

I I think Vandy or Kentucky will shock them in one of those first two games.

Vandy's good.

That's something I think we're gonna have to watch closely.

Oh, for sure.

Because I don't, like, I don't really think LSU is really gonna be at danger of losing until then. No. They're gonna go into those games 14 and o, probably like a top five team, definitely a top five team, maybe a top three team depending on who loses above them. Mhmm. And then I think they might be in for some rude surprises.

Yeah. It's definitely gonna be interesting.

I I wanna shout out quickly, UCLA did have their kind of get right game against Tennessee.

Yes.

And it was a pretty commanding win. So that does allieve it alleviates a couple of my concerns. Mhmm. Especially because Gabriela Hakas looked really confident. She scored 29 points

Wow.

On thirty two minutes. And but we're still really not seeing the production out of Lauren Betts that we really thought we were going to. Mhmm. She only scored seven points on three of eight shooting, one of two free throws, twenty nine minutes.

That is really interesting.

So it it really just starts to seem like it's starting to seem like UCLA is looking in other directions.

Yeah. Or teams have figured out how to play Lauren Betts.

Yeah. That too.

I mean, when you're that, I mean, she was she was pretty dominant last year Very time. And then, you know, we've got a lot of very intel like, intelligent and crafty coaches in in college basketball.

I was gonna say, speaking of crafty coaches, we wanna kinda jump over to we're kinda staying in the Big Ten, but do we wanna jump over to another big game that happened with a Big Ten team that took on the reigning national champs?

Yes.

Yeah. That was crazy. Michigan taking on UConn, and UConn pulling away with the win seventy two sixty nine.

It did not did not look close for a while.

No. Mm-mm.

And I mean, shout I I hate to give props, but you have to give props. Out to Michigan for for chipping away at a very commanding UConn leave to really give them a scare at the end of the game. I mean, that takes it takes a lot.

It really does.

Michigan was out of this game at halftime.

Oh, They

they came back good.

Silas Swords finishing with 29.

Wow.

Olivia Olsen with 18. Mia Mila Holloway, seven. But man, did those We know how good those sophomores are. We know how good they are. We can't

We've talked about it. We'll keep talking about it.

But between the three of them, Mila Holloway, two of 12 from the field. Oof. Silas Swords, nine of 21, and Olivia Olsen, eight of 22. I mean, they're taking the A

lot of shots. But

The vast majority of Michigan's whole offense.

Mhmm. Is running through them.

So that could be a question that we could look in coming next semester when we come back from winter break is do they find an option besides those three? Obviously, three options is more than enough. Yeah. But can they just find somebody that can be more than serviceable because

Mhmm.

Their leading point getter besides those three had seven and came off the bench. Can they find that production in the starting lineup with them?

Yeah. That'll that'll be the hope.

Well, not for us as Michigan State's.

Well, not for us.

But that'll be their hope, for sure.

I mean, this Michigan UCLA game, that'll be interesting. Two pretty flawed programs. I mean, they have amazingly talented players. Yes. But, like, obvious weak spots.

Mhmm. And so it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

I don't know how tall this Michigan team is or if they've got anyone because they weren't very big last year Oh. When we

Let's played look. The tallest player on Michigan's team, I believe, is six foot three. Correct. And that is the player that scored seven. I'm not gonna try and pronounce her name just out of respect because I'm gonna mess it up.

But that was the leading points to get her off the bench who had seven. But a bunch of other players that are six foot two, another player that's six foot three that's currently in the starting lineup. So they definitely have the size around it, but I am interested to see how that Michigan UCLA game goes because another team in the Big Ten that is clearly missing their star in USC.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's Fell to Notre Dame 6159.

Again, my pick's looking pretty good. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say.

Yeah. That game was really interesting because I we've seen a lot of different looks from Notre Dame this season.

Mhmm.

And that was coming right off the heels of their loss to Michigan. Right? Was that USC game? Yep. So, I mean, I went into it kind of expecting them to make adjustments, obviously.

But I thought that USC would be able to kind of exploit some of the same weaknesses that Michigan did. And they really weren't able to.

Mhmm.

Which is good for the outlook for Notre Dame's the rest of Notre Dame's season, especially in conference play. But, I mean, it really just showed you that when Notre Dame can get their opponent to settle into a slugfest, they have the toughness to have a better than even chance of coming out on top.

Yeah. It's just the ACC is just now it's so wide open.

It's so crazy.

It it is And with NC

State not being as good as we thought they were

going to be. North Carolina's in the best position right now.

Yeah. They are. I'm sure

we'll get to it, but and what a flip from NC State. We were talking about them very early on, and they looked incredible through their first couple games, and now not looking the best, kinda like another team for North Carolina and Duke. Getting back to Notre Dame, we I believe, Kylie, you talked about this a couple of episodes ago episodes ago. Let me not jump ahead of myself. But when Hannah Hidalgo is going for the Fighting Irish, they're going to be successful with 22 points on eight of 18 shooting.

Struggled a little bit from the three point line, only went one of six, but when she's going, they're going.

Yeah. She she really is she's just I don't know how to describe it. It's not that she's like the entire team because that's not true. But But you need you need her to be on like, she energizes the rest of the team. Like, if she's performing well, it brings up the energy of the entire team and everyone starts to perform well.

So I really think they just need her to get going, and then the rest of them will be able to follow. So I but I think, again, if, like, there there are so many things that can happen throughout the season if if she goes through, you know, like a a shooting slump or if, you know, something like that happens, it could really be dangerous for them in in their in the ACC.

But Another game that I really wanna talk about, because we haven't been talking about the Big twelve a ton on the women's side. No. But what happened last weekend was Iowa State had that incredibly high scoring shootout win over Indiana. Mhmm. A 106 to 95, and Audie Crooks dropped 47.

She's going insane. She is looking great.

And she didn't have that many minutes in that game either. Thirty three. Yeah.

Yeah. Which is low for her. And she she took 25 of Iowa State's 61 shots.

My goodness. Wow.

She was nearly half of their offense. And she scored almost half of their points.

I was gonna say, yeah. And it paid and it I mean, she delivered.

Yeah. Didn't attempt a single three pointer. Or just need to.

It should also be mentioned when Audi Crooks gets to the line, she's also knocking them down at a high percentage. She's nine eleven from the free throw line on the night. Mean Yeah. All those points matter. I mean, not that it would have given Indiana the win, but it would have made it a what?

Closer game.

If if I'm doing my math correct, it would have been a three point game. Yeah. Yeah. That matters in the long run. So Iowa State's gonna be a really interesting one in the Big 12.

They looked strong at the big last year at the beginning, and we were all really

And then they really towards the end of conference play, there was that game against South Carolina that Mhmm. You know, they lost by, like, 50.

Yeah.

But I wanna shout out Audie Crooks for only recording one foul that

year.

That's also very impressive.

Especially with playing that many minutes, playing that much in the paint, being

down Oh, yeah. Being down

low. Up against Indiana centers and forwards, and only recording one foul is really impressive.

Oh, Her split this season on 25.3 average minutes is 27.3 points per game, six rebounds per game, two assists per game, and a block per game. Yeah. Shooting 74% from the field Wow. And 73% from the free throw line, and 0% from three, but it doesn't matter.

Yeah. You don't have to.

She that's not what she's really

doesn't have to. I also there were some interesting things that happened with can we talk about Baylor?

Yeah. Iowa State. That was the game I was literally about to go to because Iowa State plays Iowa Mhmm. Coming up next week as from our recording on Wednesday. So they will be Yeah.

Playing while we are talking about college basketball, so that'll be a fun one as we're saying goodbye to Colin for the final time on the podcast. But Yeah, go ahead. I would Yes.

The CyHawk game should be electric. Yeah.

It I it's really I was, I don't know. That's not not what I was expecting. That's that's that's for sure. I I don't know.

I picked it as my game for the week thinking, oh, okay, this is gonna be close, but Baylor's gonna win.

Right.

Yeah. It was close in Iowa one. Yeah. I wasn't expecting that.

No. No. And like, I wish I I don't I don't know how to describe I just don't know what to say. I I was literally in shock and awe.

It was 57, 52. It was horribly uninspired

was game. Gonna say, there's nothing like super

Talia Scott scored 32 of Baylor's points though.

Yeah. Ugh.

Yeah. And Baylor shot 29% from the field and 25% from the three, whereas I was shot 34% from the field and 36% from three.

And when you're relying on one person for like two thirds of your points.

Mhmm. Yeah, Baylor I mean, they lost the turnover battle only by one though. It was 12 to 13.

Yeah. Rebounds are basically the same.

Yeah. There's just a bad Both teams

Bad basketball game.

Baylor didn't shoot well. They shot 29% from the field. Like you said, Talia Scott had 25 shots.

Mhmm.

And both teams shot abysmal from the free throw line. I mean, 6359%. So it's not like I'm sure Baylor will get Baylor will get right. That's Yeah. I think this is I think this is just a one off.

I mean, it was a neutral site game. So this is a one off, but a bit of a surprise for Iowa who's also kind of scheduled their their non conference. A little tougher than I just looking at

it. Mhmm.

Drake, Northern Iowa, in state opponent, always gonna be hard. Miami, Fairfield, then you get, obviously, the showdown against Iowa State, and they take on Yukon right around

Mhmm.

Christmas time. So Iowa could be another play player in this Big Ten picture that feels as if this could be an interesting question between SEC and Big Ten, which one is the strongest conference?

And which one's the deepest conference?

And deepest because Mhmm. The Big Ten I I don't have the exact number off the top of my head, but I feel like the Big Ten has like what, seven schools ranked in the top twenty five? Six? Something like that? I did that in that order for a reason?

Thank you.

Yes. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, including Iowa.

Eight. Eight. Yeah. So you can really make an argument for which one's the deepest conference. Iowa gets the head to head win over Baylor.

Mhmm.

Obviously, that's a big twelve opponent, but

I mean, they've they're playing some tough basketball. I mean, looking at Iowa's schedule, so it's they've got a pretty easy start to big ten play, but they, like, playing like, starting with Penn State, Nebraska, Northwestern. Indiana could be interesting. They're at Indiana. Then they travel to Oregon or no.

Then they're home against Oregon. And then they try and then they're home against Michigan State, who's ranked 20. Then they're at Maryland, who's ranked seventh. They're at home against Ohio State, who's twenty third. And then they're at USC and UCLA.

Wow.

All from January 11 through February 1.

That is brutal.

They they've got a I mean, any any Big Ten schedule is gonna be rough. But that

is That's a especially rough.

Especially rough stretch. So that'll be really interesting for them and seeing like what games are they're gonna grab from.

It's always interesting, especially in the new Big Ten when you're scheduling, especially those road games against the four new teams. Because typically you'll have you either go on the road to USC and UCLA and you get Washington, Oregon at home

Mhmm.

Or you go to Oregon Washington and you get USC, USCLA at home. Yeah. Obviously, this falls in the year for the Hawkeyes where you get to go to USC and UCLA, is just always gonna be tough. That travel is never easy on the body and I'm sure we've talked about it a lot with the UCLA men's head coach who's talked about it, and it's just such a grueling idea of these schools having to go coast to coast, essentially.

Yeah. If only there was a conference where all the Pacific Coast teams could play together.

And wouldn't that just be magical? Mhmm. Imagine if conferences only spanned like two time zones.

That'd be a great idea.

I mean, I will say, props to UCLA for having a bit of a harder schedule than their men's counterpart.

Real. Actually, a lot.

Harder. Oh, yeah. Harder. I can't believe you said a little bit harder. It's a harder one.

And performed they still well. Can we alright. Let's this is a this is a good segment to the men's.

I I wanna talk about some mid major

I was gonna say, do you wanna kinda go you wanna go over some of the middle, not the middle, some mid

major games that took place that we talked about a couple weeks ago? I I wanna highlight some other ones that happened during feast week, so that we didn't really have the opportunity to talk about two weeks ago.

Fair enough, go ahead.

But we had High Point defeat Charleston in the Big Easy classic, and that moves High Point to seven and one, and drops Charleston to six and one. And Charleston, of course, has the Barbit sisters, who we've talked a lot about. And they dropped twenty six and eleven points respectively, taking between them about half of Charleston's shots. But High was able to pretty effectively shut them down from long range, and then also just really hold them to only taking eight free throws. So High Point got the win, ended Charleston's undefeated streak, and I think won the Big Easy Classic Invitational.

So huge shout out to High Point. And then the other mid major game I wanna talk about is the Can cun challenge game between Columbia and South Dakota State, where Columbia used a twenty six point fourth quarter. Wow. In a game that through three quarters, they were winning by one to beat South Dakota State 80 to 67.

Wow. Which was

my Ivy League pick.

Yeah. So they they dropped South Dakota State to five and two, and they improved to four and three, and that's just a really huge win for Columbia and for the Ivy League. Riley Weiss scored 31 points in 36 Wow.

They only lost to North Carolina by 17 too.

Yeah.

They've been competitive.

Very competitive.

Obviously, a Saint Joseph's loss kinda hurts, but besides that.

Yeah. Any other men majors we wanna talk about?

I believe there was one you wanted to talk about.

There was?

A certain one in Mount Pleasant, maybe?

Oh, well, was gonna get to that before we got to upsets of the week. But we can go right there. Yeah. Upsets of the week, great segue, Eli. I have one that I got a lot of conversation about from some people I know.

Central Michigan pulled off the upset in Mount Pleasant over Purdue. Now, we know Purdue is not the greatest when it comes to women's basketball. They

lost to Purdue Fort Wayne.

Not really adding to the depth of the Big Ten at the moment.

That's besides the point. But for a Mac school to get a Big Ten school to come on the road to them and to get a win against that Big Ten school, that's always impressive.

Fly the flag, hashtag Mac action.

Shout out Central Michigan. What a good win for them. And they had a good they had a good year last year. They went to the MAC tournament for the first time in a long time, so they continue to build on it. Who knows where Central Michigan can go?

But, yeah, I got a lot of conversation when that happened about it, and I thought it was pretty funny that Purdue lost to Central Michigan.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's the Yeah. There's the best and brightest in the Big Ten, and it's crazy great basketball. And then, you know.

And I'd like to thank Purdue for Reshonda Jones.

Thank you. Yeah. She's been great. She's been awesome Mhmm. To

And and I hope you're having fun down there. But I've got another in state mid major upset. UT Arlington took down Texas A and M.

Yeah. Heck yeah.

So shout out to whack schools beating SEC schools, which you don't see happen much in any sport.

You know, I'm a fan, but I'm a fan.

I'm a huge fan.

Big fan.

But yeah, big shout out to UT Arlington, getting another one of those in state power conference. Yeah, that was awesome.

Rough week for West Virginia.

Rough week for West Virginia, Porter.

Oh, let's talk about it.

Dylan Nova beat West Virginia.

Ohio State beat West Virginia. Oh. Which they're typically Ohio State's been pretty good the past few years, but they Cody McMahon transferred to Ole Miss.

I was gonna say lost like their Yep. Whole power players.

Yep. So they they started the season unranked and they're now ranked.

Yeah.

So Good for them.

West Virginia of course was ranked because they took down Duke. Duke.

Of course.

Which is looking

like a terrible wit now.

Yeah. Maybe none of these people should be ranked.

Sorry, Ohio State. Because Ohio State's really other big game they've played was against Yukon and they got smacked around by a 168. So it's not like

I mean, that's Yukon though.

That's Yukon. Let's give them a little credit. But also, their rivals that they called the team up north played against Yukon and kept it within. They lost by three. Three.

So does Ohio State deserve to be ranked?

Yes. I don't know.

For now.

Why

not? We're just gonna keep ranking whoever wins in the twenties until eventually

Yeah. It just Until something interesting happens. Yeah. Okay. Games next week.

Games next week?

There's some fun ones. I'll I'll start with mine. Yeah. Big 10, Big 10 matchup, and yeah, we've got you at number 16 USC versus number 21 Washington on December 7. Super fun.

Did not realize Washington was ranked.

Yeah. This is actually first time I'm hearing about it.

They're undefeated. They're ranked 20. They're ranked 21. And I think this could the outcome of this game is really gonna sway my opinion of how good I think USC is actually gonna do in the Big Ten because they they they've had a couple good wins and they've had a couple not so good losses, so I think this will be a good lit litmus test for them.

I I know some coaches aren't fans of it, but I really love these fall conference games.

I think they're fun.

Yeah. Give us a little teaser for Yeah. What comes I'm in the winter gonna go next just purely because these are these next two schools are like the counterparts essentially.

Yeah.

So those two schools you

named Yep.

I got Oregon, who are currently nine and o.

But not ranked.

Not ranked. Going to number four UCLA on, I believe, Saturday or Sunday?

I think Saturday.

Saturday for a 03:00 tip. That should be a good one, and I think I think UCLA will win. Mhmm. However, I wanna see I'd like to see where this Oregon team's at. They really haven't played anyone to the highest level, but they've played some notable teams that we know.

I mean, Grand Canyon, they've played Saint Mary's, they've played Utah State, Auburn. Not the highest of competition, but it's definitely still decent competitions. It's not like they're playing d two schools

Mhmm. Or

I mean, they did play West Georgia, but besides Well

Okay. Their entire schedule isn't Yeah. D two schools.

But, yeah, but Porter

Hey, West Georgia's D1 now.

Porter was telling me something interesting about UCLA's schedule.

Yeah, UCLA hasn't played an away game, and they don't until

Really? Yes. Well, they've played What's up with the UCLA

They've played several neutral play games.

But they're

all in Las Vegas.

Yeah. Or Sacramento.

Right. Which is still in the same

What's up

with both UCLA team or both teams

I mean, it sounds like the UCLA's schedule is similar.

They don't

play an away game till after Christmas.

Is it a conference game?

It is.

It's their first away game.

Who is it?

Ohio State, and then they play Penn State New Year's Eve.

Wow.

But I think, like, to UCLA's credit, traveling to the East Coast is expensive. Right.

True. Yes.

Now, if only there was a conference. Now, if only.

But I mean

It's kinda crazy that you're not going to the East Coast just once before Big Ten.

Especially when you're ranked in the top five, when you're ranked in the top five in your program, that is, it could be a potential national

mean, you don't even have to go to the East Coast, just go to like, Chicago. Yeah, go,

just travel to some different time zones.

Go play like Vanderbilt or something.

Exactly. Like

get out of

the Go play some Invitational in like Dallas.

Get out of the Pacific time bubble.

Yeah, like go to Texas.

Yeah. Speaking of Texas, Porter.

Yes, my game is number 11 UNC at number two Texas.

Be fun.

Which I think will

be fun.

Oh, yeah. I After what we have seen over the past couple games, I would expect Texas to win.

Yes. Yes.

Pretty definitively.

Don't know. Mhmm. This will also tell

us a lot about UNC's chances at ACC. And I

guess they are the presumptive favorites

I mean, they're the highest ranked team. Yeah.

It's like them and Notre Dame.

Yeah, because it's the only two ranked teams from the ACC right now.

And Louisville. Louisville. Louisville. Louisville.

Louisville's ranked.

Louisville plays South Carolina tomorrow.

That'll be fun too.

As part of the ACC SEC challenge. Mhmm. So You like?

Yes. What's your game?

My game, we kind of talked about it already, but it's number 12 Iowa at number 10 Iowa State.

Woo hoo.

And it'll be happening slash ending while we record next week. But, I mean, the SciHawk game is always good, but this year it should truly be spectacular. And honestly, not a game you would have really picked at the start of the season to be like a spectacular edition of the CyHawk rivalry. But

Mhmm.

I mean, Iowa and Iowa State have both played incredible games. They're both still undefeated. And yeah, It's it's really a clash of the titans this year, and I'm excited.

Yeah. Alright. I mean, that'll be fun.

And I picked it even though it's next Wednesday because I wanted to.

Yeah. And you can.

Yep. You can do that. Alright. Small conference games. Let's do it.

Yeah. I'll start. Yeah, you wanna go, Eli? Let's

do it. It. Okay, I've got Cal Baptist at Boise State.

Yep, yep, Cal Baptist. Because Yep, yep, Boise State.

I'm pretty sure. One second.

Those are two of my men's picks, not women's picks.

Both of these teams have one loss. Nice. Boise State's loss was at Colorado. Cal Baptist's loss was versus UC Santa Barbara. But they've both been pretty much cleaning up on other West Coast Mid Majors.

So I think this should be a really good game. And Boise State's not really a team we talk about on the women's side a ton.

Mm-mm.

So I think this will be a good game to kind of learn where in the Mountain West they might end up finishing. Yeah. Because I Like, I don't think they're gonna win the Mountain West, but I think that if they pull out a pretty decisive win here, could definitely see them in the top half.

Kylie. Yeah. Because you're kinda in that same

West neck of the Coast. I've got Gonzaga versus UC Davis on December.

That'll be a good game.

Very good game. UC Davis is Eli's pick to win the Big West. And so, yeah, I think it'll be fun when we all have Gonzaga winning the West Coast Conference.

Shocker.

Alright. Let's jump over to the complete other side of the country. And now let's go to New England.

Porter, I have a undefeated UMass team versus

So, a three long army

we get some former former in conference game. Yeah. And now, Mac action.

Still doesn't make sense But to And then

That's fun.

For my small conference game, I went with two of our darlings. Mhmm. Fairfield taking on Richmond in Richmond on December 7. Both these teams have losses, but not losses that are very respectable. Fairfield has lost to UNC and Iowa, whereas Richmond's lost to TCU and Texas.

I mean Those are very

good losses. Those are

all like top 10 t. Essentially, like,

the top half of q one losses. Yeah.

Those are lot those are lot those losses, like, they're playing better teams than what LSU has been playing.

Absolutely. Definitely.

In their in their non conference schedule.

Absolutely. So that 'll be a great game on December 7.

I mean, like, that's mid major game of the year.

Yeah. Alright, Kylie. Now we can go over to the Mets game.

Yeah. Sorry guys, I just saw an opportunity and I wanna take it because I'm hating on UCLA so bad right now. And I think it's, you know, rightfully so.

Why? Did something happen with their men's team?

It's almost as if they lost to Cal. They lost to Cal.

In San Francisco.

In Francisco.

Because remember, they can't play away games.

Correct. And they were ranked, what, fifteenth in the country at the time?

Yeah, and everybody loved UCLA. Like, all the media

attention was on UCLA. Annoying.

And, I mean, if they're gonna lose when they travel To the Bay Area, 200 miles, I shudder to think what'll happen when they have to go to Penn State.

No, legit.

I mean, didn't they lose in Los Angeles to Arizona?

Arizona's a phenomenal

Yeah, Arizona Collins' is a fine ACC pick, sorry guys, is currently losing to Arkansas.

Oh. Oh, yeah. We we should talk about Collin's big 12 pick later.

Oh, I totally agree.

That that's just a quick teaser for like

I 30 gotta I gotta gotta rejuvenate my memory on it.

But anyway It's embarrassing.

Last week was obviously the huge invitational tournaments for both the women's and the men's, but I will I I wanna save players there and I wanna talk about Maui first.

Mhmm. Okay. Can I talk about something real quick that I think was a theme, really just a general theme for feast week for the men's side?

Yes.

Go ahead.

All ranked on ranked matchups were pretty much blowouts.

Yes.

Yeah. Every single one of them. And that that shocking. I am shocked that that was

the We had UNC Kentucky.

No. Was like yesterday. That just happened with the SEC challenge. Yeah.

I mean, we had Michigan and every team they played. Had us in North Carolina. Yeah.

I mean, all the teams that Michigan played blew out everybody else that they played.

Exactly. The top

five looks so stratified. Insane. Because

you've got a clear upper echelon of four or five teams.

It's like every five teams, the quality just drops off a cliff.

Yeah. Yeah. And it and it was insane to it's insane to witness it.

We we if we really wanna get into certain things, I genuinely think Players Era definitely ruined the vibe of Feast Week in my opinion.

I agree.

Because no disrespect in it's in our document that USC went won Maui. The credit to USC. Great job winning Maui. Seton Hall, who came out of nowhere, know we're gonna talk about them in little bit. Seton Hall looked incredible, but Mhmm.

It's something felt wrong watching these teams play in Vegas in a big arena, and it was like

A big empty arena.

Basically empty. Like, these teams should have been competing at Maui, the Rainbow Classic, like these these historic historic traditions during Thanksgiving weekend, instead they were all in basically an empty arena in Vegas.

Not much for money. Format of the play. Horrible.

What was it?

This one this I think we can just kind of openly criticize right now.

Yes.

Which was players there are teams played two randomly as far as I know, randomly drawn It

was like groups, I think.

Randomly drawn matchups, so that that and like none of them were conference games, but just randomly drawn matchups. And then were assigned opponents on the third day based on record

Mhmm.

And then strength of victory, cumulative. So that meant that there were like five teams that went two and o, and then the two that won by the most, no matter who their opponents were, it wasn't like scaled or scored based on how good your opponent's record was or how good your opponents were in their other game. Just whoever won by the most based on the luck of the draw of their random opponents got to play in the championship game for all that extra NIL money.

Mhmm.

Which was which I I can't remember the team that ended up suffering because Iowa Iowa State

ended up getting They didn't get to play in the third place game either. They went two and o and they played for the fifth place game.

Which was Absurd. Which was absurd. So this is this is why people like I even Fort Myers, like, it wasn't like we knew who our opponents were.

It wasn't a bracket this year.

It wasn't a bracket, but like the idea of playing in those smaller arenas and all that.

It looked jam packed in there. It looked Yeah.

It looked It packed. Especially on Thanksgiving Day when it was UNC Michigan State, it looked pretty equal in terms of Tar Heel Blue and Green.

Half the arena was Tar Heel Blue, half of the arena was Spartan Green, it was completely full and it looked electric.

It looked awesome in there.

Also like the most watched college basketball game of all time on Fox?

Yes. They announced that today officially on but I don't know. Feast week is always good, I just felt like Players era brought it down from what it normally is.

I agree.

The format, location.

Just the format, like, everything about it, like, games

And then the games were like blowouts.

Blowouts, which that's It's no

fault like of the Syracuse Houston, which was sort of fun.

Kansas City, Tennessee by five points in the third place game, also, which like, Tennessee beat Houston.

Tennessee beat Houston. There was a lot of good basketball that was being played alongside of these blowouts and alongside of the terrible formatting for the tournament. Yeah. And there were so many issues with it. Nonetheless, we've got some fun stuff.

I mean, there were a lot of really fun games that were played. I think we do have to talk about the elephant in the room that none of us wanna talk about. Yeah. And it's the fact that Michigan is actually good at basketball.

Oh my god. Yeah. I mean, that Like, I watched that Gonzaga game.

I do think it was an uncharacteristically poor performance by Gonzaga.

Oh, the worst performance of the Mark Few era, some would say.

Yes.

And, I mean, just total and utter decimation.

Mhmm.

Mhmm. Basically.

Yeah. Michigan is the Bents' best defensive team, according to Ken Palm. The eleventh best offensive team, according to Ken Palm. Their net rating is three points clear of the next closest team. Mhmm.

Duke last season, their widest margin all season was two points.

Yeah. That's Yeah. I think I also think they figured out some of their I don't know if they figured it out, but this will definitely be a question going for the rest of the season for them. Did they figure out their issues early? Because they were initially terribly defensively, and they could not stop turning the ball over.

While in their last three games, they've won by a basically an average margin of around 37 and a half, I think, if my math if I'm doing my math correctly. Mhmm. Beating by San Diego State by 40, Auburn by 30, and Gonzaga by 40. I don't I don't like it. I don't like it, but they're really good.

I think it'll be interesting to see how they play against teams that I think would be are better known as defensive teams. Mean, the Big Ten is, again, the Big Ten is a lot different than all of the other, like, the Mountain West and the

The West Coast Conference.

The West Coast Conference and the SEC. It is.

I mean, the Mountain West doesn't play basketball.

Whatever. And that's why it's the best.

No, they don't know. The Mountain West just doesn't play basketball.

They do something else.

We've actually all been vividly hallucinating the But Mountain West this whole

for Michigan, they've got so many different avenues that it comes from. Yaxald Landenberg, who, goodness gracious, on his day, he looks incredible. Morris Johnson.

He looks

like the best player in the country.

Yeah. Morris Johnson looks great. Roddy Gale, I feel like he's really stepped up his game so far. Trey McKinney, mister Michigan basketball in the state knew he was gonna be pretty good. Adeymara has also looked incredible.

One of the best centers in the country. Namaari Burnett has really stepped it up, basically averaging 10 points. Elliot Kudeau, I don't know about that one.

Well, there's always one baddick, I guess.

I mean, he's been playing a lot better than he was at the end of last season, but also he started out last year looking really good for UNC, and then it kinda went a bit downhill the rest of the year.

But

I I just really wanna commend Michigan for I mean like, they had they had those incredibly highly publicized really close scares against Wake Forest and TCU. Mhmm. And clearly they went back to Ann Arbor and they worked on it. Yeah. Really intensively.

Mhmm. And it worked out.

We're just looking at TCU now. That's not really, I mean, too much of a scare because they took down someone.

Yeah. TCU just upset Florida. Florida. Mhmm. But also TCU lost to the University of New Orleans.

So we're, you know, we're not gonna talk about that though.

No. Because the upset is gonna be fun when we get to it later. We can talk about it. I mean, we can just I mean, we've talked about Player's Era. I mean, we can just kinda gloss over some of the games.

I mean, I know one of them's on there that I know I picked last week between Oregon and Auburn. Yeah. But And there's some other there were some other good games that took place.

They just got lost.

Yeah. They just They kinda got ignored because

That's of

my other gripe with players, Era. It's too much And I and I never say this. It's too much basketball.

Yes. Because no one because they had three different arenas, I think, taking Three different

areas, and all these games are happening simultaneously. Yeah, that's why

the format can't be anything good, because it's like, you're only there for a weekend. You can't all play each other, you can't work out a good pod and then play off the arrangement.

People can't go to three games at the same time. Exactly.

That's why the arenas are empty.

That's why you should've done, like, cut that field in half, put some of them in Vegas, then throw some of them wherever else you want.

Then do like brackets.

There you go, and then put them in Yeah. Smaller

I mean, DU could host a tournament. That'd awesome.

They could do like three different eight team brackets in like Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Denver.

There you go. Yeah. That'd have been great. And you'd fill all those stadiums. Yeah.

If you put them in smaller arenas, let's because I'm sorry, they can't be all at like T Mobile or T Mobile Arena, and then the Salt Lake City Arena, and then the Denver Arena. Put them in smaller venues that Really? Look better.

Denver University, I think it sits 8,000 people.

There you go. Perfect. Literally perfect.

Yeah.

I really wanna talk about moving away from Players Era. I mean, I wanna talk about UConn, Illinois.

Yes.

Great game. I've I tuned in at well, when I tuned in at halftime, it was not good game.

No. Was not.

No. It wasn't. I didn't get it.

It became it got closer towards the end, but I mean, UConn ended up pulling away 74, 61. So the so the Brad Underwood experiments, it's still I don't I don't know. I'm not convinced.

And then there was the Alabama game Mhmm. In Chicago that also didn't go well for Illinois.

I I'm not really

I mean, they're six and two.

Yeah. I mean, and these losses are not bad. Losses.

The losses are Yukon and Alabama. Exactly. But I believe they play Tennessee this weekend.

Correct.

In Nashville. Correct.

Yep. It's it's gonna be I give one thing I give Underwood credit is he's not afraid to schedule Illinois

is play and they played Texas Tech earlier this season.

Mhmm. Also, we can get into Texas Tech here in a second for another blowout that happened during feast week, but I think Illinois is definitely a tough out.

Mhmm.

Do I think they keep it up all season?

I don't know. They didn't. I mean,

we stayed in last year. They didn't

last They lost they lost steam last year.

So I think if you're getting a couple losses out of the way now, maybe that's a better sign for Illinois because they started out last season really hot. And then they played us. And that and then

And then we ruined them.

Mhmm. Well, think wasn't this the game where it was the interesting where the ball didn't hit the the rim?

Yeah. Was over the back of the backboard.

And it was a

And then we won by two.

Or no, I'm not talking about MSU. I'm talking about Illinois, UConn where it was like the they tried hitting they said that it hit the rim, they got it back out, and they got, like, a four point play out of it for UConn, I think. Yeah. Did.

Yes. That's yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So

not saying Illinois would've won.

They but they

had momentum. But that's a momentum stopper right there, getting a four point play like that when it shouldn't have happened. Yeah.

Speaking of Illinois, Alabama, going back to Alabama real fast, interesting note, they are not the fastest team in the country this year. They've slowed down by about two possessions per game. They're only the ninth fastest.

Woah.

Cal Poly remains the second fastest team in the country. Love. Can anybody guess who the fastest team in the country so far through 10 games is?

The Citadel. No. Is it

a team that we can realistically guess or is it say like team that's like

You've heard of them. What conference are they

in?

I don't know.

That's alright. So that's a great

sign. So it's a

mid major.

It's a mid major and it's in one of the four conferences with South in the name.

The Southern, the SOCON.

It might be like Murray State.

IU Indy. No way.

Heck yeah.

I not have guessed that to clarify.

What's their record?

Let me I had that up, let me

you're doing that, they're three

and six, oh, in Horizon League. Yeah, three and six in the Horizon League.

Splendid. While you're

doing From the fast.

80 possessions per

game. Going from there We can we or do you have something, Josh? I was

just gonna say briefly mention the fact that Purdue absolutely blew out Texas Tech. Eighty six fifty six. That was a little bit of a shocker. I thought Texas Tech

I thought it would be a better game.

I thought it was gonna be a great game when I saw it, and I was like I saw the score, and I went, oh, really?

Okay. I mean, Texas Tech, they were really threatening in the Big 12 last year, and they just seemed to have fallen off the wagon a little.

Think I think Matt Painter talked about that Texas Tech team after, and he was saying that they kinda started out not how they normally start, and they got into a funk, and it just kinda went downhill from there.

Yeah.

They were taking shots that they shouldn't take. I think JT Toppin was taking shots that he never normally takes, but he was for some reason taking them. So that's part of the issue. So if you start out funky, it's not gonna end well in the long term.

Yeah. Just overall rough performance.

I've got some games I wanna talk about.

I so should we very quickly nerd out about the MSU game?

I was gonna say, if we haven't mean, you know, which one? Are you talking about UNC?

Well, yeah. That was fun. That one was so good.

Yeah. North Carolina game was great.

Yeah. I'm very excited about that. I think

Talk about Feast Week Demolitions.

Yeah. That was great. We looked good. Jeremy Fierce looks unbelievable. He looks like the best point guard.

And this is I'm trying not to be biased, but he looks like the best point guard in the country right

now. And he can score points this year.

Yeah. Last night, he had what, 17 points?

Last night, he had like

Yeah. Something like that. And then didn't he have 19 against North Carolina? Yeah. And he was he's shooting the ball really well.

Like, for for somebody that normally really didn't shoot, he's shooting it decently. So Michigan State gosh. If they win, we have we're gonna get to we're going to get to it, and I feel like that's where we might spend a good amount of time. Saturday is going to be unreal if MSU can pull out a win.

Yeah. I think we'll blow the roof off of the Breslin, I fear.

East Lansing might burn to the ground.

Yeah. Especially if In the best way. Especially if MSU hockey gets a win the night before too.

Yeah.

Honestly, East Lansing might burn to the ground either way.

True. But hopefully, it's like Hopefully, it's celebratory. Yeah.

I agree. A happy moment. Alright. Eli, what were your games Yes.

Do you

wanted to talk about?

I wanna talk about last night, the SEC ACC challenge.

Oh, fair enough.

I about Big Ten Ball last night.

Well, I'll talk about that too. But last year, if you remember, the SEC cemented that it was the best conference last year by demolishing the ACC 14 to two.

Yes.

And as we speak, after the results of last night, the ACC is up six to three.

Hilarious.

After Duke beat Florida, Syracuse upset Tennessee, UNC won on the road at Kentucky, Virginia Tech beat South Carolina in overtime, and Miami beat Ole Miss.

And not to mention, they're still going on as we're currently recording, but Louisville is losing to Arkansas right now.

Mhmm. And Clemson's have is They're they're catching up to Alabama, which is crazy because they were down by 15.

And yeah, now they're up they're outscoring Alabama by 14 in the second half, but I love these. And BC

just came all the way back against LSU.

That makes this even funnier.

But I love Boston College program.

I I love these and I wish that more because I believe the Big Ten did these

We did for a little Big Ten eight was it the Big Ten ACC challenge?

Don't The SEC Big Twelve challenge, and then the SEC and the ACC dumped us and married each other.

Yeah. Well, also the big 12 teams left and joined the SEC. Sure.

That's it. Also, I thought we'd play, like, we'd play a couple Big East teams as well.

Used to be a big there was a Big Ten Big East challenge for one year.

Wasn't it? And then there was I love, I wish these would come back. It was called the Gavitt Games. Yeah. Yeah.

Stuff, like, I wish those would come back.

I remember those.

Because I remember it was MSU's Seton Hall one year where it was MSU wore the black and neon green jerseys.

I guess I'm glad I don't have to remember those.

Yeah. Actually, I have that jersey. Those are fun jerseys, but

Are they?

I like it. It could be worse. It could be the football jerseys.

That's fair. I'm glad we ditched those.

But I I like I like these challenges. I wish that these happen more often, and I wish you mentioned that ACC, SEC's gone again. Why not do MS not MSU, but like Big Ten, Big Twelve.

Big Ten, Big Twelve would be awesome.

Or do or you know what would be really fun? Do like Big Ten versus the the West Coast Conference. Have like Michigan State

I mean, I don't need to play like Pepperdine.

No no, that For like Too late to travel.

No, no, we need to go play San Francisco.

Have like MSU go on the road to like

Collins pick to win the West Coast Conference. Have like MSU

can talk about that game in a second.

Any other games that we quickly wanna highlight?

We beat Iowa.

Yeah, we beat Iowa. We beat Iowa too.

I'm gonna quickly highlight something that's happening in real time because Minnesota's about to beat Indiana.

That's an unbelievable win if this holds

If you're for going to Nico's next to Indiana, I know you're gonna

be by seven and

there's

forty

five seconds.

Nico Medved. This will be a great win for Nico Medved, especially against a Yeah. Fellow new head in DeVries in Indiana. So this is this will be a good win if they hold. I mean, they're up by seven with forty five seconds remaining.

Yeah. Speaking of current games, Clemson's up on Alabama by two with nine minutes left to go.

Yeah. See, this is why I love ACC. I love these challenges.

They're very fun. I'll smile. I love

Minnesota fans. I really hope they storm the court after this. They usually do.

As far as Collins pick to win the West Coast Conference, they lost to an admittedly undefeated Colorado Buffalo team, which is where I'm from, but

does not bode well

if you're losing to Colorado.

And when we're talking about big 12 basketball powerhouses, I mean, Boulder just comes up Colorado comes so up.

They had a generational run last year in the tournament. They knocked West Virginia out of March and made a lot of people very unhappy.

And they had a win in Maui. Did. They won. Didn't they beat UConn?

They beat UConn Yep. This

Small conference games, I know I I have have one as well.

Oh, I wanna go first because it's about another one of Collin's conference games.

Go ahead.

So Kansas State, who again for some truly unknowable reason Collin picked. Collin picked to win the big 12.

Didn't they get PJ Haggerty?

Right. Yes.

Mhmm.

They stole Memphis' Guard. But they are now on a three game losing streak.

One

Which includes losing to Nebraska in Kansas City, losing to Indiana in Bloomington, and on Monday, they were upset at home by Bowling Green State University.

Yes. Go Falcons. Go Falcons.

And they lost by 16.

Oh. Go Falcons.

Fly the flag. Colorado or not Colorado. Kansas State.

That's what I meant. That's what I meant to say. Not having a great time right now.

Oh. And their next game is Seton Hall.

Oh, gosh. That's gonna go even worse. Think Kylie, what was your small conference game

I'm you wanted to talk trying to, like, see if I can find the score. I wanna talk about VCU South Florida.

Yes.

I no one in my everyone in my house was like, why do you wanna watch this game? Was like, y'all just don't get it, do you?

They don't they don't know ball.

So I

literally was sitting in my living room and I was

Brady, if you're listening to this, we love you.

Yeah. Yeah, Brady Brady knows ball. But I was sitting in my living room engrossed in this in this game, and I was like, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Looks good. VCU looks great.

That NC State game was so entertaining. Know we talked about that like weeks ago.

VCU looks absolutely amazing. They I mean, yeah, they just look so they look so fun. So they beat South Florida, which South Florida also looked good. This was a very competitive game. It very fun to watch.

I'm a big fan. They beat South Florida 78 to 66, but they and then they ended up going on to lose to Vanderbilt, unfortunately, 89 to 74. But then they beat Virginia Tech, bounce back, beat Virginia Tech.

ACC win.

ACC win, 86 to 68. And Virginia Tech, by the transitive property, so Virginia Tech beat Colorado State this weekend in a terrible, absolute, awful game. So And by then, by the transitive property, you know And

Virginia Tech just beat South Carolina.

Yeah. So VCU has beaten South Carolina and Colorado State.

This means VCU is The best game in the a 10?

No. Oh. Yeah. Speaking of a 10, this is gonna be a fun year in this season.

The a 10 is Dayton.

Late. Dayton.

Dayton, seven and two

Dayton looks good. And

currently sixth in the a 10 according to strength look, strength of schedule and win loss. Rhode Island is seven and two. George Washington is seven and two. Richmond and Davidson are six and one. St.

Louis is seven and one. Collins picked to win the eight ten. The Bonnies are eight and one, and George Mason is nine and o.

St. Bonaventure was at the Fort Myers Invitational with us Mhmm. And they lost to UNC and then beat East Carolina, and then they stayed in Florida and beat FAU on the road before going home. So that was another great mid major win.

I fear Loyola Chicago will not be having a Sister Jean reunion Reunion.

Reunion tour. Remembrance tour.

Remembrance, I'm gonna say, what do you mean reunion tour? They

did get their first win since opening day last night over Central Michigan. So

I would love. I will say VCU is kind of lower right now technically in the big the eight ten because they're five and three, but their their strength of schedule is insane. I mean, I'm excited about Dayton. Dayton only lost, to I'm gonna say this is a positive for Dayton. Alright?

Dayton only lost to BYU by

Four. That's a great loss.

It's a great loss.

That'll look like a great loss. And if if it comes to if they may need an at large bid.

And Dayton has two big East wins over Georgetown and Marquette.

Georgetown looks like a great Georgetown looks like a good win.

Yeah. Mhmm.

Marquette Marquette is fine. That's a it's a good win still. Yeah. One I really wanna talk about real quick before we get to

Oh, George Mason also beat FAU. There you go. The A10's just really beating up on FAU.

Heck

yeah. Murray State versus McNeese just because Yeah. McNeese won 73 to 60. And the only reason I really wanna talk about this one is because we talked about it a couple weeks ago that we I thought I found my my Rashaan Taylor for Oh, this yeah. And Jevon Jackson from Murray He's

gonna be

our new favorite guy.

I don't know. He's gonna have to pick it up a little bit because he only he finished the game with three points on one of 10 shooting. Oh. Jevon Jackson.

How were his free throws?

It could've been worse.

It could've been worse? How about only had three points. So I'm I What think was his free throw? I have to look. I have to look.

Zero for 10.

We might have to ditch him forever.

Hang on. Let me look real quick. But it couldn't have been pretty if he only had three points.

Well, yeah. That's fair. Mhmm.

It couldn't have been pretty. I just wanted to bring that Well,

maybe his field maybe his three points was field goal get fouled to make your one free throw.

So Javon Jackson went one of 10 from the field, zero three from three point, and one of two from the line. Well

We'll need

to see improvements.

Was about to say, we'll we'll need to see some improvements coming into later into the season, but But

I'm not giving up on him yet.

Not yet, but I'm a little disappointed. I'm a little disappointed.

Of the week. I'll start out with mine. Seton Hall, what the heck's happening? Seton Hall beat at at the time ranked number 23 NC State.

Shaheen Holloway. Yeah. He's back on the big stage. Only needed a couple years at Seton Hall to get that program kinda right and they look Yeah. They look really good.

They look like they might steal some games

They're from finally playing like a New Jersey basketball team should.

Yeah. They beat up beat up on NC State. I,

speaking

of Thank you.

Speaking Jersey basketball, Central Connecticut State University beat Rutgers.

CCSU? I don't know how

much of an upset this Who

I did not pick to win the NEC this year, respect the fact that you did.

I did. And you all agreed with Andy Katz, so Okay. Well Wow.

That was uncalled you

can't for fight the shark tank.

Rutgers, you know what, whatever. Rutgers, you know, the the cream of the crop in the Big Ten, the best Big Ten basketball team ever.

Yep. Totally.

Lottery picks last year.

Congrats.

It's still an upset.

I think they only lost to Purdue yesterday by, like, 16.

Something like that? Yeah. Yeah? Speaking of the Minnesota Indiana game went final, and Minnesota pulls out the win.

Heck yeah, Minnesota.

So that'll be

Good for you.

An upset we could talk about again next week. But, Eli?

We kind of already talked about it. Syracuse got the win over number 13 Tennessee in the SEC ACC challenge last night.

Syracuse looked pretty solid also during feast week.

Syracuse went o for three in player's era, but they took Houston to overtime Mhmm. And only lost by four.

So,

they know we've known they've had potential.

Yeah. I also pointed this out, it's so weird seeing Syracuse not play two three zone. I've been just so accustomed to them with two three zone and Jim Boeheim, and this was like kinda like one of the first real times I sat down and watched the Syracuse game since post Jim Boeheim, and I'm like, why are you playing man to man? You should be playing two three zone right now.

I mean, weird that they have a different head coach.

Yeah, looks great. As much as this one hurts me to say, I have to still talk about it. TCU got the upset over my the reigning national champion

Dude.

And my SEC pick. Yeah, they're not not looking good. No. Florida.

SEC picks may be wrong.

Yeah. That guy that's gonna be Vandy.

No. Vandy for the SEC.

Yeah, none of yeah, none of ours are looking. I think out of unfortunately, I think out of all of ours, is looking the best, and I hate that.

Again They just lost to Syracuse.

Just lost to Syracuse. So who even knows?

And I should be the one that's really upset because mine was with Andy Katz.

Well Yeah. Well, that's kind of a given.

Yeah. But yeah, the Rady Children's Invitational. See, now that's how you structure an invitational. It's a four team bracket. It's in the University of San Diego's gym.

There you go.

Which seats like 3,000 people.

Heck yeah.

And the reigning national champion loses to TCU. There you go. That's ideal feast that's week

the way that feast week

should The SEC doesn't have a team ranked in the top 11,

which is crazy.

That's crazy for the SEC.

But they're all clogging up the middle of the rankings.

I mean, Tennessee just lost.

Yeah. They're gonna go lower. They're gonna drop to the lower middle of the rankings, of course.

They can clog up the high teens and low and mid twenties.

Yeah. Alright.

Vanderbilt the only undefeated SEC team left?

Are they?

That's tough. Yes.

Well, while we look at that

Yeah. Go ahead.

Games next week. Let's do start with power five. I'll I'll go first. I've got number one Purdue versus number 10 Iowa State on Good game. December 6.

There's a lot lot of great games going on this weekend. Lot of great games going

on Saturday Friday, is going Saturday is truly an insane day for basketball.

Not even basketball, just sports, college sports in general. Yeah. It's gonna be great day. Yeah. Great day.

Football championships?

Yep. And conference championships Friday, Saturday.

Which is part of the reason why I'm I'm gonna jump the gun. Why my game is, for some reason, being played at noon.

It's gross.

I'm not the biggest fan of that game being played at You

have to wake up

so early. This game should be a 08:00 on ESPN primetime, like, this should be

Should be a prime time.

This should be a primetime game, but it's not. For some reason, it's at noon. I got number four Duke coming to East Lansing to take on the number seven ranked Michigan State Spartans.

Let's go.

And we kinda hinted at it earlier, but this is going to be an unbelievable game. Question for both the both teams really is, can Michigan State stop Cameron Boozer who's been on a tear lately, showing why he's probably the best freshman in the country.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And can Duke slow down the duo of or trio, really, of Jeremy Fierce, Cohen Carr, and Jackson Kohler.

It'll be interesting to see. I mean, last night, we looked Bennett Stearts did not play well last night.

Bennett Stearts air balled a three point

zero. And he's a really great player.

I'm not And I saying don't know if he's ever done that before.

And I'm saying, I'm not saying that he's as good as Cameron Boozer, but Beneisterz is a very good basketball player. Yes. Very good.

I think we learned a lot about Iowa last night, is that they knew more players alongside Beneisterz.

It was also Iowa's first true road game.

Oh, yeah. So It was also I

think it also speaks to the Drake basketball team, and as good as Drake may be,

they're not They're not Big Ten Red,

they're not Big No.

They're not Brooklyn Thunder Red.

I was about to say, especially first game for Ben McCollum as a Big Ten head coach, You're getting rough draw. You're getting thrown into a East Lansing Breslin Center before winter break. Place was gonna be rocking.

I'm sure he would have much preferred, like, Northwestern. But Yes. Sometimes, that's not on the chip's fault.

But I think this game I mean, I really think especially, like I mean, and Izzo will talk about how important the crowd is, how important the student section is, and I think we can bring that energy, and I think this could be

Oh, yeah.

This People look speedable. They survived Florida.

Yeah, they did.

Florida, it was also a game winning three, and Florida had a chance to still win it. Mhmm.

Yeah.

They had twenty seconds in Cameron Indoor Yep. To get it done. So Duke is definitely a beatable team. Yeah. It's just, can you slow down Cameron Boozer?

Mhmm.

Which I feel like Michigan State does a pretty good job when it comes to defense and rebounding. Don't allow Duke to get any second chance points. And MSU could be looking at, for the first time in, like, what it feels like my lifetime, a undefeated squad going into the winter break.

Mhmm. Which would be nice.

The state of Michigan owns the two best defensive basketball teams.

Yeah? Yeah. I'd agree.

According Is to the it Michigan and then us?

Yep. No, It's it's us and Oakland. Right. So It's Oakland and us.

It's us and central.

Oh, don't worry. Don't worry. We'll get to talk about some Oakland basketball in a second

for us. We do my game, also wanna shout out other college sports this weekend. It's the first round of the volleyball tournament. It's the college cup for women's soccer, and it's the elite eight for men's soccer.

Mhmm. Sad sad sad and well, men's soccer for

MSU is not so. I'm just saying, if you're a college sports fan, there's truly like seven sports going

There's so much going on this weekend and it's so exciting.

But my game is number 11 Gonzaga at number 18 Kentucky. And I think this is fun because this is one of those games where both of these teams have taken very recent high profile losses.

Yeah. Kentucky multiple.

Kentucky just lost last night to North Carolina.

Mhmm.

Gonzaga got destroyed by Michigan and Vegas. Historically, yeah. So both of these teams are going to be hungry for this win. And they're both talented teams.

They need a they need a solid ranked win.

I suspect this will show once again the echelons that are developing in college basketball.

Where you've got the top tier, you've got

another really good tier, and then you've got everybody else.

And then you've got apparently most of the SEC.

Yeah. Because like,

did Gonzaga just lose by 30 to Michigan?

Yeah.

Yes. 40. They lose by 40.

40. Do I think they'll beat Kentucky by 20? Yes. Also, yes. Yeah.

And that's crazy. Mhmm. But it's probably what's gonna happen.

Yeah. Or not.

Have Number 14, Illinois, at number 13, Tennessee.

Also a really telling game for both of these teams.

Yeah, two teams that really, really need a win.

Yeah.

They could really use a marquee win

Mhmm. Against these

are yeah. Just

like Q1 wins matter, and this not saying that these teams don't have opportunities to pick up Q1 wins in conference.

Mhmm.

But, like, you gotta get these out of conference Q1 wins.

This would be a huge win if it's Illinois, because I think we said earlier, this is in Nashville, correct?

Yep.

Yeah. This is essentially a home game for Tennessee.

Correct.

I mean, Knoxville, Nashville, not ridiculously far compared to Champaign, Illinois. And then it'll

still be a Tennessee crowd.

Yeah. So this would be a really big I've not that when you're just looking at the win, but if Illinois wins this, this is essentially a road game for Illinois. Yeah. That'd be a big one.

It'd be

a huge one.

Yes. So those are some really fun power five games we've got going on.

Did we talk about yours?

Yes. We did hers first. Oh, okay.

Don't worry. Purdue Iowa State's gonna eat. I already know it.

Is that also at noon on Saturday? Yes.

Yeah.

Because of conference championships. Yeah. We'll be

watching the score bar underneath the Breslin Center Jumbo

Trump. And then I'll also be checking in on the Big twelve football championship game, because I want BYU to make the playoffs.

I will not be. Small conference time. Small conference time baddies. Like I said, Oakland basketball. We've got some Macchin though.

We love Macchin. We've got Oakland versus Toledo. Woo. Yeah. Woo.

Heck yeah, basketball.

Friends of the pod.

Friends of the pod and two teams Michigan State is going to be playing over our winter break. Super exciting.

Like a little three team bracket.

Yes, it's Michigan State and then my two other powerhouse teams, Oakland and Toledo. I'm so excited.

Okay. The team with the best record against the other two wins.

Yes. Imagine it's like Oakland or Oakland comes away with having the best record, and it'd be like, what?

Why? What just happened? So concerned. Speaking of Mac Speaking of Mac basketball.

I love Mac skitball. Yeah, Bowling Green coming off of their Big twelve Road win.

Heck yeah.

Hosts Utah Valley, who was the regular season WAC champion from last year, and with Grand Canyon gone, will be looking to battle Cal Baptist to the death for the WAC tournament bid this year.

Heck yeah. Cal Baptist, shout out.

But I think that'll be a really, really good game.

Mhmm. Porter, you wanna do the school that You wanna go? Yeah, I wanna go. Undefeated eight note Colorado travels to Moby Arena to visit six and two CSU.

Is not a small conference game.

Once again

I mean, you guys don't let me put CSU in the power five games.

This has a power five school. Team in it.

But one of the worst power five teams.

There ain't no. Look

I got you there. I got you there. Colorado

will eclipse 13 wins after big

think you've picked a Colorado State game.

Every time? It feels like?

Like

He's picked a Colorado team every time.

Like like of the what, six weeks of regular season basketball we've had, I think you've picked a Colorado State game like five times.

Other time I picked a Colorado State women's basketball game. Right.

So at least once

every week.

I would say at least

men's or women's, there's And comes I'm not complaining, go Rams.

Yeah, Josh. I've got

eight and one South Alabama traveling to East Tennessee State to take on the six and two they're six and two, and more importantly, they're five and o at home. This will be a great game. I was listening I don't remember the podcast, but it's got Riot Hammer on it, they were talking about this game, and I feel like this could be a really fun one. Yeah. If you're trying despite the massive amount of big sports taking place, if you wanna watch some some mid major basketball, South Alabama versus East Tennessee State could be a really good one this I

mean, me and Eli both have ETSU winning the SOCON.

Yeah, we talked about them So We talked about them a couple weeks ago when they got that ASUN SOCON Challenge win over North Alabama. Yeah. So shout out ETSU.

Gotta make a game. But, alright. Y'all, is it is it time for us to wrap up with a second think to

last we really need to.

Of the semester?

Yes, we do.

Alright. Well, thank you 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. This is our third full basketball season, and the chaos is just getting started. From here on out, we'll be talking about the rest of the nonconference games and other basketball news, and then conference play is going to begin soon.

This season's madness is only just beginning, and we can't wait to talk about it more next week on Check the Net.