NCAAM Midwest Region: Key Insights and Predictions

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00:00All right. Midwest, Houston. This is their region. They are the one here. They will play Edwardsville

00:05in the first round. Gonzaga, Georgia, 8-9 game. Clemson, McNeese State. Purdue against High Point.

00:12I got to tell you, I got that one on my radar already, maybe for an upset. I like that High

00:16Point team maybe making some noise against Purdue. You got to have a couple big shots. I'm going to

00:21try one there. Illinois against the Texas Xavier winner. Kentucky against Troy. UCLA against Utah

00:27State. And Tennessee against Wofford in the Midwest. Well, you know, I want to see the Aggies

00:33give UCLA a game. And believe me, if he loses to Utah State, that'll be enough of him in Westwood.

00:41I can see him whacking him, even though they owe him more money than God. They pay him 4.1 million

00:46a year. His buyout is enormous. It is absolutely enormous for Cronin at UCLA. He's already being

00:54rumored today to be the new Villanova head coach. I mean, it didn't take long, did it?

00:59I'd love to see Utah State beat them. And I'll tell you one thing, I agree with you. High Point,

01:04there's no Zach Eady at Purdue anymore. And they have lost to a 13, 14, and 15 in the past.

01:11We've seen it. And last year, they lost in the title game because of Zach Eady. But every other

01:16year, they lost. I can see them losing that game. And I'll tell you another one. Clemson's a really

01:22good team, but McNeese is going to be a nightmare for them. McNeese can flat out play. But I'm sorry.

01:29In my view, no one's beating Houston and Tennessee in this region. They're both too good.

01:34That Tennessee defense and that Ziegler kid is a badass. They're going. And they're going to

01:39meet Houston one way or the other. None of those teams are as good as those two teams,

01:44and particularly defensively. Let's get real here with all the other nonsense.

01:49And obviously, those two teams are the favorites to win the Midwest region,

01:54Houston and Tennessee. But a really interesting thing that you have here is

01:58the third choice to win the Midwest region is actually the eight seed, Gonzaga. I've got Houston

02:06plus 130, Tennessee plus 360, Gonzaga plus 850. This board's got Kentucky even with them at 850

02:13as well. You know, for an eight seed to be that high up, that makes them think that Gonzaga is

02:18going to have a shot against Houston if they can get past Georgia in that first round.

02:24Yeah, listen, I got to be honest with you. This, I'll believe it when I see it. This Gonzaga team

02:31to me is the worst one I've ever seen him have ever. And he's gone to what, 27 straight tournaments,

02:3826 straight tournaments. This is the weakest team I've seen him have. That Houston team's

02:44not losing to them. I know it's easy to say because it is. It is easy to say. Listen,

02:51that team is going to give you problems. You are not scoring more than 50 points,

02:5855 points against them. And if they even get remotely close to 60, they're losing to no one

03:05because you're not scoring more than 55 points against them. They are, they are shut down deep.

03:11Let me tell you why, uh, Patino won the big East because they're, their full court press is shut

03:17down. What they did to Creighton in the second half is what they're going to do. You know what

03:21they are? They're a Python, a boa constrictor Python. They suck the life out of you. You can't

03:29score. Creighton was giving them fits in the first half and then they never scored again.

03:34That's what's going to happen when you play teams like Tennessee, Houston, and St. John's.

03:38Now I know everyone's already got St. John's out of it. They'll never do it.

03:44The number two always, they're finished. Shut up.

03:49Oh, they got to play, uh, Cal or self in the second round, you know, Kansas.

03:54I heard that today from a guy that Cal's going to be, he shouldn't even be in the tournament either.