Weekend Under Review - March 30, 2026

The previous basketball is under review. Welcome in to the episode of Weekend Under review. That is Matthew Winnick. I am Brian Ralph. What a weekend of basketball, man. What a weekend of basketball. We we will get to all of the games, all of the elite eight games. We will preview the final four games. That's what's on tap in this episode. Break down all the matchups. Everything you need to know about what just happened. How you con did that. We were recording this on Sunday night, about an hour after that game ended. How that happened, what to expect in an app list coming up this weekend. We'll get to all of that. After we remind you to subscribe to basketball under review, if you have not subscribed already doing so get you access to all the premium content on the website, basket under review.com and access to the discord, which is where it's really on and is putting all of his scoops and Intel, which is very, very important and good to know this time of year between coaching searches, between transfer portal news, transfer portal. Going like commitments. This is where you need to be in the basket under review, discord to subscribe to pass your interview today. Okay. Matthew, we're going to go through these chronologically starting with Illinois and Iowa. We do have to again, we're recording this about an hour after you cons 19 point, come back when against Duke. Quick word on that. We'll get to that at the end of the show here. Yeah, like I mentioned to you before we got on air, there have been some unbelievable shots in late game, late around NCAA tournament games, you know, Chris Jenkins comes to mind, Le Mans Butler comes to mind. Like those are bigger shots in terms of one was to win a championship, one was go to the national championship game, but those were both back and forth games, especially the North Carolina one, you know, like North Carolina Virginia Villanova, Marcus Paige, I just hit that crazy shot prior, like it was back in course. This to cap off a comeback makes that shot so much more special because it's one thing to hit one of the greatest shots and you know, Martin, March, Mandice history, but to do it to give you on its first lead since to nothing to come back from down 19, one of the 10 biggest comebacks of the last decade in the big dance. Like it was truly given the circumstances, maybe the most stunning shot in March, madness history. I think it was a theft of a game like you can't did not shoot anywhere near well enough to win that game. I didn't play well enough for a vast majority of that game to win that game. And yet here they were even when they got the steel. I was thinking, oh, here one goes up and they're going to miss. I never like until it went through. I was the first time in that game. I thought you come. Yeah, I mean, all I can go through my head is like how early on in that come back to John shy or start thinking about Houston last year. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll get to a full game breakdown. The end of the show because I have I have more on that specifically. I've had more on that all season long. We will get to get to that at the end. We're going to start again chronologically first seen the punter ticket in the final four was Illinois doing so in a 71 to 59 victory over Iowa in a game that was much closer than the final score indicated in Illinois did pull away and that second half down the stretch. But Iowa got off to that 10 point lead very early on. I think it was a 12 to run to get the game started there. How was Illinois able to to whether that and gets the point where they flip the script and went from down double digits to winning by double digits. Well, for one, Iowa was red hot from shooting from three early on in the game in Illinois throughout the entire game. I mean, they only hit three three is it went three 17 in the contest. But essentially once Iowa cooled down from three. This game was over because that was what gave them that lead. And Illinois had a size or physicality or skill. And it was a huge advantage at every single position at all times. And all it took was them finding the right matchup in this particular game. It made the most sense to have Andre stay off because Iowa was not interested in the Illinois team. They were focused on individual creators. Illinois only had eight assists in this game. Only 32% of their field goals were assisted on it was just Illinois working playing booty ball with with Andre stay off of it's finding the best matchup and then using that to get downhill. And then if you miss that shot offensive rebound, which was a huge part of Illinois's success. Iowa the entire you know tournament basically every single game. Maybe I said of that Clemson game where the least were the less talented team of the two. And at a certain point when you can beat individual matchups, that's when you can really expose a talent gap. And that's what the align I did here. Iowa had 21 rebounds in this game. Illinois had 16 offensive rebounds finished the game with 38 overall 17 17 board edge in that category. What was a major factor. Bennett starts played like the Drake version of that search the best version of that it's in this game. I thought it was the best tournament game he had played. He had been in addition for honestly a lot of the tournament in the shot selection was a little iffy. We got the guy who was the preseason All-American in this game. We got the guy who could win a game for you in this and keep the walker out played him like those two going back and forth and walk and making some of the place he needed to down the stretch. And that played a huge role as well and a walker rightfully got all the all the prey that for the game because of his story and you know where you know all the typical things and I think there's something instead for both him and starts being kind of the end of the dog playing this role. Re-applements the Archivic was spot on the wall. It was great. It felt like story Archivic made all of the key bucket that kept Iowa from going on around down the street because I would cut it to five and then there's so much bucket that kind of stems the tide and deep fire from getting things rolling. Can I would do that in the tournament every single game pretty much they've had one of those comebacks and so average was the main reason why it didn't happen. Probably my favorite stat from this game is Andre Steyakovich and Iowa had the same amount of two point field goals made at seven. So it's never going to be a good thing if one player ties your two point field goal output. Now on the other side Bennett starts did have more threes than all of I Illinois but of course talking about volume here. Yeah, Andre Steyakovich was the best player in this game. The most important player in this game and it's crazy because he doesn't start. But Illinois and this is a topic I'm going to be talking about all week as we head into the final four. Their offensive role allocation is superb. Everybody has a just a such a strong understanding of what their particular value is to the offensive end and they play that role to a tee. Ben Hummer, Cousin, Jake Davis literally never dribble and they never turn it over because they know they're out there to space the floor and to get rebounds. Both of them are actually very good at both of those things. You have your passing versatile biggs and the evisite brothers and Merkovich wadlers their lead score. Vaz well as their connector and then you have Andre Steyakovich who is their downhill driver and when Illinois needs a bucket, even though the Ackon, it does not start. My guess is he's number one on that list of guys they want to score. Yeah, we've talked about Illinois in the sense of when they are at their best, they are the team outside the one seats that has the best chance to go and win a title because when they are at their best, the role allocation that they have everything you could want. They have size you saw with in this game in the rebounding. They have the perimeter shooting. They have the the slashing. They have the defense that everything can come together for this team. It had been inconsistent though throughout the course of the season. That's why you end up with eight losses in the regular season and big ten tournament. But they're they're putting it together at the right time here and I'm excited to see what this team does moving forward. Because now they have all the pieces in place now that they are playing at this level and there's a real sense of belief and confidence. I think that came through that Iowa game. Like that's a team that. I know they're on the opposite end of the Arizona Michigan game. But if they were to win the national championship, it would surprise me. It would not shock me in the way I think it might have you commented on pointing to you. That's a thing like you mentioned eight losses go to those losses by four by three by three by two by one by three. And then the two losses by more than four points. Well Michigan in the final four and you can in the final four. So there only losses to non final four teams have been either in over time by one possession or four points or less. And at that point, it's like, well, your couple bounces away from having two losses, both of them only be in the final four teams. So they really are top five team in the sport. They have been basically all season. And I know we'll talk about Illinois, Yukon later, but they've really figured out their rotation over the course of the entire season from November to now. This is a different team. They've been talented from the start. They're clicking at the right time. That first game against Yukon was the day after Thanksgiving and they played on that right blue Nix NBA Cup court in Madison Square Garden. This is going to be much more visually appealing game to say the least we get to full preview that later in the show. I'm going to get to the second game that I think. and Teteria Knight, which was Arizona's victory over Purdue. Wildcats won by 15, 79 to 64, but Purdue obviously controlled things for a good portion of the game, particularly the first half, even early second half. At what point did you feel like Arizona completely took this game over? Yeah, it was early in the second half. It was kind of co-appeated that led the charge because Arizona really struggled playing in the half court against Purdue's set defense with two bigs, forcing Arizona out of the rim. Arizona is a good paint team, but they're really best when they get the ball all the way downhill. First comes to mind is that Kansas game they lost, where it felt like they were shooting from seven feet away rather than three feet away, and that makes a huge difference. And even the Utah State game, they won. They only shot 39% from two because they didn't get all the way to the rim. Their two-point distance was at the 34th percentile. This is one of the best two-point distance teams in the country that didn't get to the rim. And what co-appeated was he was able to rev up his engines, get down the court a little bit quicker than some of their early first half sets, get some turnovers out and transition. And when co-appeated takes his transition dribble, he could take one big leap and get past Oscar Klough. Get past, Cheykov and the Grand, and finish really strong with that, let us just say. And once co-appeated as a mission to get to the hoop and not just downhill, the shot started coming way easier. It also alleviated the offensive, remounting on the weak side. And then suddenly, the shots become more wide open, and now those start to fall too. So it was Pete really being able to get all the way to the rim and then everything. Pete reminded me, like his performance and the importance of his performance, reminded me of what we saw against Florida in the opener. Another massive front line who gave their Arizona smish use, but Pete, his mid-range game and the fact that he shoots it like above the release is it above the rim with that release makes it really difficult to guard. And when he's making it, you have to then respect it out to 12, 15 feet as almost automatic. Because when he gets going like that, it is pretty much automatic. And then you suddenly have more space around the rim and we saw that early work for Arizona. The other part of this too was Arizona's ball screen coverage defensively. They've been doing this all year and it makes sense why he go over the ball screen because you want to funnel the ball handler to mo crevasse. That's the like what they want to do. When you play right in Smith, you don't want to do that because there's no money in college basketball better getting down a hill with a numbers advantage. And I do think like Purdue had control the first half early part of the second half, one because they were they were playing incredibly well. Like Smith was playing some of his best basketball season, Cluff, I think did play his best basketball of the season. Even with TKR and foul trouble. Like those two were able to get what they wanted. They were able to find open shooters. But they were extending like the initial pick and roll up to about half court in Arizona was still going over the screen, put them in a major disadvantage. And because Purdue was able to get buckets off of that, it kept Arizona from getting out in transition, kept them from getting that offensive rhythm. Then it necessarily really changed. In the second half, they still played it the same kind of way. Purdue just missed a couple shots. They missed a couple shots Arizona capitalize on it, got the pace back up to where they wanted found the rhythm and the rest was history. Yeah, it's really was just the king down to two point distance. I mentioned this earlier, but co-op it, you have to get all the way to the rim. You think about Braden Smith and you think of Trey Copman, Ren. They combined the shoot 21 two pointers in this game. They only went six of 21. And that's because they weren't layups. It was Braden Smith mid-range pull-ups. And it was Trey Copman, Ren with that hook shot or with that floater runner in the lane. And that is just mathematically an inferior percentage shot than at the rim. And Arizona's ability to get to the rim and Purdue all season. Their inability to get all the way to the basket because their ball dominant point garden, Braden Smith is six foot flat, not a great vertical leaper. Yes, he's a great drive and kick player. He's a great drive and pull-up player. But getting to the rim with all of these four teams in the final four, there's a constant in all of them. They're big and they have guys that with the ball on their hands attacking downhill can get to the rim. And Purdue was never that team because Braden Smith and Fletcher lawyer think of their first two years with Zach Edie. They had that rim guy. They had that pressure release getting around the hoop. And Arizona has that in spades. Purdue lying on more challenging shots. Once Braden Smith went cold, once Trey Copman, Ren got into foul trouble, there was no sustainable pathway to points. Yeah. Turned it over more than a second half as well. Purdue did that also led to more transition opportunities for Arizona. What's your synopsis of this Arizona team as a whole looking ahead to the final four? I picked them to the national championship. I think you picked them to the national championship as well. Like, this team to me is the most complete team and this is why we saw guns Purdue. They did not play well and they beat an elite 18 by 15 without playing well for 25 minutes. The way the multiple ways they can beat you, I think makes them very, very scary. If there is one team that can, probably Michigan. We'll get to that a little bit later. But they're just so solid, so solid across the board. I feel like beating Arizona is like trying to like, like drag push a rock up a hill. It's just they're so solid that like maybe you gain some momentum or maybe you get on them early or maybe you even have an edge or you come back late. But like at the end of the day, you still have to push that giant rock up the hill. They're so physical. They're so solid and they're never going to beat themselves because they never turn it over and because they don't shoot three, they're not susceptible to a bad shooting game. Like you can almost just lost Duke because they had an awful shooting game. And Arizona could go one of 11, one of 15 from deep and it's not going to change the fact that because it's their third most used method of offense behind the rim and the free throw line, which are way more sustainable and consistent shots, it just feels like you're constantly pushing against something that's just going to give you pressure back. And while and we'll get into the Michigan Arizona situation and Michigan as a whole, while Michigan has the better maybe talent, maybe better roster, the physicality and the steadiness, the guard play and the consistency of this roster is unmatched. And they don't panic. Like I I was expecting to see some panic on them when they got down by a pretty size margin and it extended into the second half. They didn't flip the switch the way I kind of expected them to initially coming out of the break. But for a team that plays three freshmen as much as they do and four freshmen in the rotation, right? Half the rotation is freshmen. I expected there to be a little bit of panic or a little bit of desperation, a lot loss of composure. That was the exact opposite, right? Co-oped as we mentioned, stepped his game up the right way. Brain Burries, I think it four threes after half time. He stepped up in a way that you love the scene. He's been a gamer all year long. So so it's co-oped. Karczynkov raised his defense, met the moment, got out and transitioned. Jane Bradley did what Jane Bradley does. It's what he's been doing all here. It's why he won Big 12 player of the year. That to me, it doesn't press him as anything. This Arizona team does is they push the rock up the hill. The rock isn't like you can't build momentum against that rock. Right? You like you're sure? That's why I said up for a hill. Yeah, it's exactly why I said that. They are so consistent and they do not panic. It is incredible to watch and again, something you typically don't see from a team that is playing freshmen as much as many freshmen as many minutes as you're seeing from Arizona. Mention they'll play Michigan. Arizona is the only team in the country that can have any of their five starters be the best player in the court on any given day. Yeah, that's the best compliment I could give them. And then they've won games with Delorso who played nine minutes in this game. Like Delorso has been their lead guy in games that he played nine minutes in this game. That is true. Yeah, just incredible. As we mentioned, they're going to be playing Michigan. I can't wait for that game. That game is going to be absolutely phenomenal. Michigan Tennessee was not phenomenal. Michigan went on a 21-0 and run in the first half and that was that 95-62 victory over Tennessee. I don't want to belabor like this game and the Tennessee portion of this too, too much because I do think Rick Barnes maximized the Tennessee team. I think he got everything out of him that that possibly could. We just saw the offense limitations that we know been there all season long and you were kind of hoping the physicality and the defense and the the size would have something against Michigan and it had absolutely nothing. Again, Michigan ran away and hit with the lead in this game and never, never give Tennessee a chance. Two things in this game went horrifically wrong for Tennessee. The first thing, like you mentioned, they missed all of their shots and Michigan continued to be right red hot from three. Yeah. If you will never ever ever beat Michigan, no one in the country will ever beat Michigan if they shoot 18% better from three because Michigan's too good in other areas to lose if they beat you by 18% from deep unless the volume is just completely off. That was already a death sentence for Tennessee, but what really did them in is because they missed so many shots and because they are the number one and offensive rebounding team and hellbent on getting some second chances. If they didn't get the rebound, it was either going to be the axle to Morez-Johnson or to Adyemara and Lendaborg and Mara happened to be the two best rebound big man outlet passers in the country. And what's going to be open if you have four guys attacking the offensive glass are two on one fast break every single time. And so what happened was Tennessee missed all these shots. Sure they grabbed their offensive rebound. We've been talking about all year how awful they are actually finishing those second chances. And if you don't get the second chance, your court is so unbalanced because you're going all out for that rebound that now immediate outlet pass. Mara sees over the defense, Yaxl and Daborg's an unbelievable outlet passer. Two on one easy basket, repeat the cycle and now Tennessee's down 20 and they are not a team built to come back from a huge deficit because of how their scheme is. And third, I'll give you third one, they aim it was awful. And so you stack those things up and like yeah, 30 point game easy. Yeah. The things Tennessee wants to do slow you down and win the glass, win the interior, right? Michigan made Tennessee play fast and Michigan won the battle inside. So like, and the story is done. And I do wonder how a Michigan Iowa state game would have gone if Iowa state had been healthy. Michigan still wins playing like this. But I think I don't want to say Tennessee kind of like was gifted into this because that's disrespectful to Tennessee. And I don't mean to do that at all. Like I said, they they maximize what was on this roster. But this roster, I don't think is your typical lead eight roster because of the offensive limitations that we saw. But from the Michigan standpoint, they're looking like a juggernaut again. And again, we'll get into the Arizona matchup here in a little bit. But how do you diagnose Michigan or look at Michigan going to theapolis? No. Good thing about doing these shows is I can go back and see what I said before they happen and see how it kind of altered my thinking. And I went on here a week ago and I said, Michigan's going to walk to the final four because there's no one that's going to be close to challenging them in their region. We were talking about Alabama without a hall away and how many threes they were going to have to shoot to compete. We're talking about Iowa state like they without Josh Jefferson. And then we're talking about Tennessee and the flaws that they very clearly had in this matchup. And yeah, Michigan's great. And you can look at the scores of their last couple of games and be like, well, no one's going to beat them. They're so dominant. This was the worst region of the four when you consider who is available and which teams were still around. And you can look at the score, but like, well, Michigan's impossible to beat. Winning a game by a lot in the NCAA tournament doesn't necessarily mean that much different. That much else like that meeting and winning a game by one. It's truly a win is a win. And like, yeah, when you con one every game by double digits meant they were dominant, but I don't necessarily think that Michigan is X times better than Arizona because they won games by X more. Yeah, I do wish we had seen a fully healthy Iowa state because I think that were the only team in the region that could have given Michigan a real game. I probably overthought it picking Iowa State to win that game because I do I do think Iowa State had more of an ability to do some of the things Michigan and Tennessee tried to do and failed because Iowa State's a much better offensive team. But once one show of Jefferson hurt that ankle like it was it was over. It was over. Let's get to Duke Yukon now. The last last game of the elite eight was the best game of the elite eight. Again, 19 point comeback victory for Yukon. Braille and Mullins hit that shot that we are going to see for the rest of our lifetimes. Every time we watch March Madness and then called basketball really, they're going to be showing that shot, showing that play. How into the shot itself later, but how did this come back? Duke became unbelievably stagnant offensively down the stretch and everyone not named Cameron Booser and Isaiah Evans were scared to shoot the basketball scare. You can go and look at the possessions were Caden Booser and Caleb Foster were given lanes to the basket for an easy seven foot floater and passed that up to try to find Cameron Booser because when John Shire's in these moments and you and I both have been seeing it for months and going back to last year with the Houston game. He's a Duke team under John Shire in recent years in a close-ish game, especially when they were up bigger and are so afraid to make a mistake that they end up making the biggest mistake of all and that's offensive complacency. And once Yukon figured out how to attack Cameron Booser, once they weren't scared to keep Taylor's speed on him because foul trouble didn't matter as much, once they doubled him correctly and figured which guys to not double to help off of him, which ones to not help off of, it changed the entire game. They were not threatened by Caleb Foster or Caden Booser or Domé Sarr or Nick Comenia or Patrick Gott Pat Gongba or Malik Brown at the ball on his hands. Even with Isaiah Evans, he hits some tough shots and he's a tough shot maker but he's not a consistent shooter. When your defense only feels threatened by one individual player on the court, it makes your offense just cripple because the defense knows what you're going to do and the defense knows what you want to do. I genuinely think if some of those other guards were willing to take some of the easier shots they were given, obviously they miss some but they also make some that takes the pressure off of Cameron Booser. He makes more shots and we're not in that situation. And then you think about the lack of confidence from these guards that ended up costing them greatly when Caden Booser threw it away and led to that Braille in Mullins III. I know Duke fans or at least some of Duke fans think I have a vendetta against them and I do not, I have a Duke basketball here. It's over here. There's no vendetta here and I do wish it does stink that the injuries of Caleb Foster and Pat and Gongba happened because especially with Foster, I think a healthy version of him makes a difference in this game. I didn't, I picked St. John's to win this region because I thought that was the matchup where they really needed Caleb Foster and I had no if Caleb Foster was going to play. He played, he played really well and that's why they got past St. John's. But in this game when it got tight, you needed a guard to make a play. You needed a ball handler to make a play. That's my big thing with with Duke and John Shire throughout John Shire's tenure. There's one thing you can nitpick. It is not the recruiting. It is not the ex-no coaching. It is not the game planning. It is not the size. It is not the defense. It is not the offense for 99% of the offense. There's one thing I think you can legitimately nitpick. It is a nitpick about John Shire as a coach is that he has not given his team a guard. I was going to say point, but he's not given his teammate guard or a primary ball handler who you can trust to go make something happen. Caleb Foster said big shots for them this season. But all that came from Cam Booser playmaking. I did like early in the season that they basically used Cam Booser, not Caden. Cam Booser has a de facto point guard late in games when they got in these situations because he's a smart enough decision maker. He's a quick enough processor. He handles the ball well enough to where he would make the right play. You go back to the Arkansas game. He did that. He did that. He did that. Even in this game, when things got tight about three minutes off, they went to Cam as the de facto point guard in those situations. However, it's much easier to get the ball out of the big man's hands who's not used to running the show. Then it is to get it out of a point guard's hands. As good as as good as Cam Booser is, he is not going to ball handle his way and create space and not give it up. There are limitations to his ball handling ability. I think that's why you need a guard. You can go back to the Houston last last year and I do think the lack of a true point on that team cost them. He'd been over this. Tyres Proctor was great. Tyres Proctor is more of a two guard than a true point guard, but he worked and bring the ball up because everything else that team had. The UNC loss, you're up six, give a 9-0 run to end the game because you didn't have anybody who could go really create for you ball handling was the Texas Tech game that you blew had a massively in that game. The same thing happened. You didn't have anybody with ball handling who could go make something happen outside of structure. You almost lost the Florida State in the ACC tournament because you did not have this happen. This was right after the injury so I'm going to give them one there, but it almost happened in that game. It almost happened against Florida in the ACC's challenge. They did blow a lead and then got it back because that was like the first sign of Buggie Fland that we saw for Florida. If there's one consistent nitpick with John Chyre, that is I think legitimate. It is the fact that he has not prioritized getting that caliber of ball handler. Caleb Foster has been great and he earned so much respect from me from what he did in that St. John's game. Playing through the broken foot he did and playing the way he did was phenomenal. And Kayden Booser I think is going to be a very, very good coach player and a very, very good pro for a long time. He had 15 points in this game. He had 13 before you concert making their comeback and then he kind of went away and unfortunately he had that turn over at the end of the game. Right? Like that's part of a freshman. being a freshman, that's why you don't really want to put a freshman in that spot. But he had three turnovers and fostered three turnovers. You need that guy and Duke let me get in one next year in Rippy. And so like I might probably be higher next year's Duke team than I have been on this Duke team. But the thing with Duke is the lack of a true like guard or ball handler who can go make something happen on side of structure is why they have not won the championship last two seasons. Duke has had in John Shire's four years Duke's had two players with an assist rate over 22%. You know who those two guys are? I'm going to go Booser and Flag. Yeah, Camden Booser and Cooper Flag who if you're keeping track at home, neither of which are guards. Duke has also and his four in John Shire's four years never had a guard with a usage rate over 25%. In his four years the guys that have had high usage rates Kyle Filipowski, Kyle Filipowski, Cooper Flag and Camden Booser. It's been played through the four words which make those teams really dominant and yet it's going to hamper your half court late game offense. In a sense it might not even be John Shire's such ball at all. Like I might be blaming John Shire for no reason. I don't know how many coaches are going to have elite late game execution when you don't have a point guard and they've kind of bypassed that in having a hub forward and that's really really lifted their floor. They've been incredible and yet you're going to lose games that way when you don't have a player to have a proper two man game with that forward and it showed on the biggest stage on Sunday. Yeah, the reason I brought up Shire it doesn't seem to be a priority of his or it has not been a priority of his to to get that guy because as good for Critter as he is and the resources Duke has, they can get what they want pretty much right and they've been okay and again I love the confidence that he's put in Caleb Foster, I love the confidence he put in Tariq's proctor, I love the confidence that he's put in Kaden Booser. I think they need better than what they've gotten if they're going to ultimately win a national championship and again they might change next year with RIPP because RIPP is is the caliber of guard caliber of talent let's say we'll self see what he translates to the college game. The caliber of talent who can make a difference in this one particular area. We'll see what happens there but the Yukon side of this. Terrace Reed is on some kind of run man. This entire tournament has been just the Terrace Reed show and he was he was phenomenal in skim. I think he outplayed Kaden Booser in this game. He was great. Yeah, he's just one of the five most physically dominant players in the sport and he has a coach in Dan Hurley who is not only one of the best offensive minds in the sport but constantly in fact always has four shooters around him and there's nothing that makes a big man look more dominant in the post when you can put four shooters around him. The first thing that comes to my mind is Stan Ben Gundy Orlando Magic with Dwight Howard and how he had four shooters at all times with Rashad Lewis and Hito Turghuluah. It's probably the Stan Ben Gundy because he's been on on on air every day during March Manus and I love his commentaries. He's awesome. I love that booth with then Gundy, Robbie Hummel and Kevin Arlin. That should be phenomenal phenomenal. But it's the same concept and Terrace Reed is kind of like Dwight Howard asked in his physical dominance around the hoop. He has so much space to work with because you can't double. I mean, you can double but you can't confidently double off of any of the shooters. Even when you kind of ice cold like they were in the first half for the first 30 minutes of this game, you don't want to give Braille and Malon the wide open three. You don't even want to give Malachai Smith the wide open three. He's the only one that hit one in the first half and that offensive, you can runs all these fun pretty sets and it didn't matter. They didn't need to do that because their best set by far was let's find Terrace Reed in the post either off that pick and roll or in the classic post up and he's either going to get a bucket or they're going to double and we're going to have an open three whether that goes in or not. And that simplistic offense but like actually reasonably attainable offense on a play and play out basis is what Duke really struggled with and it's what you cons thrived in down the stretch. I'm glad you brought up Malachai Smith. He was a really underrated player in this game. He had nine points. He's only had three games this year in which he has scored more than nine points. Those one of those was against UMass Lowell. One was against Illinois. One was against problems. He again, it wasn't a ton but the buckets that he scored kept this from being a total disaster. For you gone earlier in the game. Also, you're like the cold shooting was was insane but Alex Cariband hit one three and it was the three he had to hit because Alex Cariband is shooting 100% on all the important three point shots he's ever taken in his career. It's it's incredible the the clutch shooting that he has done but Malachai Smith is not going to get talked about because he didn't hit the shots late but they they're in a position to make that comeback if he doesn't make the plays that he does or late. I was watching that game with someone who does not watch basketball at all and I pointed to Alex Cariband number 11 with like two minutes up in the game. I said you see that guy. He's gonna he hasn't hit a three today. He's gonna hit one in the last two minutes and naturally he hit the biggest one because that's just what you expect out of Alex Cariband throughout his college basketball career. Of anyone over the last five years of someone who you expect to hit a late game three in a big situation he's got to be near the absolute top of that. Is he the the best winner in college basketball since like Christian Leetner? It's got to be I mean I don't want to like make any many claims but it'd be very hard to argue against that off of first thought. Yeah I'm sitting here thinking like maybe somebody on those fourter teams that went back to back in 0607 but I mean Cariband's been doing this longer and he's now in his third final four like I think it is going back to those Duke teams like Leetner and Hurley. Well yeah three final fours you know how many games in his four year career he didn't start. I'm gonna I'm gonna guess one which is probably like his freshman senior night. It was one and it was actually just the first game of his freshman year. I didn't start him the opener against Stonehill and then he has never not started since. I always the last two off seasons I've called him at top five top 10 players more at 15 players sport and I get so much hate every year I do it because it's like well he's not too sickly dominant in it. I don't care he's a top 10 player in sport because he wins and he's one consistently and he's been on the floor for some of the best teams in the sport consistently every year. He is I say this with no disrespect. He is one of the best role players in college basketball industry. Like he is I completely disagree him completely. He is not a star but he is going to be the best number three guy you could possibly have. I disagree I think he is a star. You don't have to have a high usage to be a ball dominant player to be a star. He is just him being able to play the four and handle the loser so that Terris Reed could play the five and not get foul trouble. Handled him on the glass play 38 minutes in that game and be a threat to space the floor so that Duke couldn't double Terris Reed with the second front court player. Like obviously he didn't have a great game but you could argue outside of Terris Reed. He was the most impactful player and impact is more important than numbers and he's a star for that reason. I get what you're saying you're saying he's a star role player but I don't think we have to throw those last two words in there a star is a star in its own right. I think that's fair and I don't mean it to come across as a sparinging in any way because I don't mean it to be but the teams may the final four are the teams of where he has had a like a Terris Reed or had a Don McClingan had a Sanogo had other guys right I think he is he is perfect and the like the best number three option you can have right that doesn't that doesn't mean he stinks and he's only number three option but for winning a championship if he's your number three guy that's awesome for you that is awesome he plays that role incredibly well. Let's get to the games ahead now because this is this is the fun part again we go chronologically the first game that's going to happen on Saturday night is the game between Yukon and Illinois we'll save Arizona Michigan for the nightcap fun stuff but this Huskies team is is kind of getting by by this getting their teeth a little bit they've been in some closer games than Illinois has but they have the championship pedigree in Illinois this first time they've been here since 2005 Yukon's first time they've been here since 2024 how do you how do you stack this matchup up what are some things that we need to watch and pay attention to so the first thing you're going to have to do is you're going to take that first matchup that these two teams played and completely throw it in the trash and don't look at it scarved not worth it first of all happen in November like you mentioned I'm going to give you some minutes stats here first for Yukon Eric Rybah played seven more minutes than Teres Reed okay Braille and Mullins played 10 minutes in that game all off the bench Jalen Stewart played 24 obviously Braille and Mullins to sit the game and shot Jalen Stewart played five minutes on Sunday now let's go to Illinois because it's even crazier Mahalo Petra bitch played three more minutes and keep vlogler okay no one on Illinois played more than 25 minutes in the game except Rekiaan Boswell brand in Lee played 11 minutes and Jake Davis played nine now Bren Lee hasn't played in weeks and Jake Davis is their starting win. Dovgy and Markovich played 13 minutes and Ben Hummercow's played 25. Absolutely nothing from that rotation for Illinois is applicable today. >> No. >> Nothing. So throw that in the garbage. >> Just throw it away. >> This is from the Yukon side either. We talk all the time about how you need to keep in mind what matters from the November December games, but like teams are learning and figuring out who they are, which I got to shout out the Charlotte Hornets as well. This happened with the Charlotte Hornets as well. It's either playing freaking awesome now. But that was one of the things like you mentioned. It's going to be a different game. They seem some different rotations. They have different stars they're on. I think back in November 2, Reed and Mullins were like coming back from injury and not quite themselves. We kind of didn't quite figure it out yet. Illinois still thought Colin Boswell was like their best number one option type deal, which because he was for a little bit. Obviously that is that has changed drastically. So with what we know both teams are now, what are the matchups you're looking at that are important that will decide to game? >> Well, the first thought is just looking at how Yukon played Duke is what's Illinois's plan on Teresbury? Because it's evident that one-on-one is going to be a challenge for you to defend him. Now, obviously, Illinois has two seven foot, evisite brothers who can handle him down low to an extent. Of course, Teresbury was coming back from injury in that game, but it was maybe his worst game of the season. He went 0-3 from the field and he had four fouls in 15 minutes. So not only did Illinois do a good job not letting him score, but they got him into foul trouble, which is really, if you get Teresbury into serious foul trouble, Duke didn't do that in the first half, but couldn't in the second. That changes his team. Yukon was 22 points per 100 possession better with Teresbury on the floor in Big East play. Absolute game changer. But beyond that, knowing Illinois, because they never, ever, ever double team anything and they're dead last set of 365 teams in turnover rate, I'm almost certain they're never going to double team Teresbury and they're going to do the Yukon Zachini producing where it's like we're going to try to avoid fouling you. We'll accept that you're going to score 30, 35 points in the post, but if we stay at home at your shooters and scout your off-ball action and your handoffs and your screens, it might not matter how many points Teresbury scores down those. So long as it doesn't foul our Bigs out and so long we don't allow 3-point or Yukon has not going to go 17-20% with 3-point range again. And Illinois is playing with fire with doubling. They already have the size. Let Reed beat you. Don't let him be a passer. Don't let him be a shooter and don't let the 3-point shooters get out. Upside of the court as well, I think this has to be a big Merkovich game for Illinois. The reason being he's going to play the four obviously. He is the one who can kind of power through Yukon's for line the way that Cam Booser did. When you have a center, you force Careban to play on the four. And that part of why Yukon is so successful is how good he is playing the four. And as good as Careban is, which we just talked about, he is not a strong post player. He is your stretch fourth, but I better suit him playing the three. But Duke got that big lead early, largely because Booser was going through him. And they had no answer. He did a good job blocking the initial shot, Careban did much better than I thought he would. But Booser just got the ball and go right back up and get fouled or make the shot, right? I think that's there for Merkovich to go do something like that. And then if you have to switch Teresrida onto him, which Yukon did with Booser, late in the game, then that opens things up for one of the advantages to do something. Because then you have his height, his care man's height, and that's in mismatch in a different way as well. So I would expect it only to attack that way, or maybe something to look for there. But I think to Wogler against Yukon's perimeter defense is going to be interesting as well. Because a lot of what Illinois wants to do is based off of Wogler making those plays that the Duke cards were unable to make. Yeah, my guess is the two Illinois players that will take the most shots in this game are And like you said, Merkovich. And that's because Yukon's defense is all about pushing you off your spot, playing physical, enforcing you to put the ball on the floor and get downhill. And still, Yokovich and Merkovich are way better at Wogler at doing just that. Now, we've seen, I mean, we saw, we saw Keaton Wogler have to shake Isaiah Howard on Iowa so bad that he inbounded the ball off the main. So yeah, Yukon's going to want to push the Wogler off the spot. He's clearly gifted in Tauhton enough to create his own shot off the dribble. But he's not a great downhill player, especially finishing oversized and he doesn't draw a lot of fouls. So that's where Sto-Yokovich is probably going to play well over 30 minutes in this game, even if he doesn't start. And Merkovich are going to be such a big impact duo because they're the ones that kind of lock the shooting by Yukon being concerned of their downhill drive. Yeah, 100%. I also think too, from a Yukon perspective, they're going to shoot much better than they did someday. I would anticipate five of 21 probably isn't happening again with Yukon as many shooters as they have. We'll pick a winner of that game in a second. But let's talk Michigan Arizona because this one, this might be one of the like all time games. Well, according to Ken Pomm, it's the highest rated game since he started tracking in 2011, which not to make myself sense. So yeah, I was not a college basketball fan in 2011. I was 11 years old. So I was not a fan of the sport yet. I didn't really know it was going on. So this is arguably the greatest game of my lifetime. No pressure. And I'm going to be in person at the game. So don't worry about the pressure. That would be amazing. Yeah. Like, this is, it feels like for you and I, the goal post has always been, where's Arizona at? Where's Michigan at? From basically the second week of November to now. It's like, is Michigan the better team? Is Arizona the better team? And us being able to conclude those debates with a result is going to be so amazing. It honestly, I'm excited to spend like 10 hours of my week diving into this. And I don't want to make some bold claim of what's going to happen because we're still so early into that process. And this is a game that you want to, it's like a fine one. You want to savor it as the week goes on. But first glance is Arizona is the only team in the country that can make Michigan's front court look normal sized because I firmly believe that Ivan Karchenkov absolutely can handle Yaxal and the board one on one. I believe that the trio of Tobay Oaka, Koopete and Mokrivas can handle Morez Johnson and Daimara. And the edge that Michigan has had over every single opponent this year from the three four and five spots physically and size wise. This is the only matchup where that is not the case. And I don't think we have any idea what Michigan will look like when that happens and we're going to find out here. Michigan has only lost three times this year. And it's been a little bit different each time. The Wisconsin loss, they lost because Wisconsin's guards went off, right? And boy and black will had a phenomenal game. They lost to Duke and part because Duke is a really, really good team, but Duke slowed it down and kept Michigan out of transition, right? And Purdue kept Michigan out of transition a little bit, but they won the front court battle. Their bigs are phenomenal in that game. TKR and Kluuff are fantastic. And Michigan didn't make threes. So it's been a little bit like there's not one common thread to look at for Michigan. But we have talked about Michigan all season. And they are clicking in all cylinders. They are a freight train that cannot be stopped. They're sealing as high as any ceiling. I think we have seen in college basketball. But they haven't always played that way because if you keep them at a transition, if you limit their clean three point attempts, if they don't make their threes and they turn it over, which all of which they're susceptible to do, you can slow them down. You can limit the three point attempts cleanly and those two are correlated, given them in a transition and three point attempts, three point shooting. And they are susceptible to turning the ball over. Those things happen and yaks a little bit off. They have been, they have been vulnerable. You go even outside of those losses too. This happened in close game they had against Penn State on the road. Happened when they were flirting with a bad organ team for a while, happening against Nebraska, happening against Ohio State for a little bit like happening against Minnesota, what happened against Iowa? When you keep them at a transition, you limit their clean three point attempts. It is harder for them to get on those avalanche type of runs. I don't know if Arizona is going to do that because Arizona wants to run themselves, but Arizona has, I think, the personnel to defend their perimeter adequately, even in transition. I think that's going to be a key factor in this game. However, Arizona defends that the perimeter transition because they're going to force for them or they're going to have to limit Michigan's three point shooting. Again, things that Arizona can do, but doing that against Michigan is much easier, much easier said than done. The one thing that I can't get out of my head as we're talking about this is I like to think about, you know, my first thought is, well, there's no one like Arizona in the big 10. No one that Michigan's played in the big 10 is anything like Arizona, but there is one team that Michigan's played this year that plays an awful lot like Arizona. And it's because Tommy Lloyd came from that system and that's Gonzaga. And I would argue that Michigan beating Gonzaga by 40, Gonzaga with Braden Huff, I may A fully healthy roster was perhaps these single most impressive performance of any team in the entire country all season to beat Gonzaga by 40 on a neutral site at Full Screen. And Michigan, that was an 80 possession game because Gonzaga crashes the glass. They couldn't get off into rebounds and then Michigan with the grab and go like I said the best passing outlet team in the country. Michigan made all their threes. Gonzaga's not a good three-point shoot in team. And because Michigan's huge Gonzaga who's dependent on getting into the rim with their bigs couldn't get there because they had a dimara and they had Maraz Johnson waiting. And all of those things are what Arizona does. Now the difference is, Jaden Bradley and Braden Berries are better than any guard on the Gonzaga roster. And also, like I said at the beginning of the show, you're never going to be Michigan when you shoot 20% worse than them from three. Michigan shot 35% better from three-point games. Of course, switch that it could be different. But the general concepts of Gonzaga and Arizona are almost identical. And that was the best game of Michigan season. And that can't be a complete coincidence. I think Arizona is better than Gonzaga just about every position. Braden's, Braden Huff Gonzaga was like a top. Gonzaga was number one in Kenpon when that game happened. Even even a healthy Gonzaga. That game too, I think, matters in the fact that that game was over 12 minutes into it. Like it was it was done. Earlier. Michigan was up 20 plus it was over 12 minutes into that. And I think that like for Arizona, you cannot let Michigan like you can't lose touch with Michigan. Because Arizona as you push in the rock uphill, it's going to be tough. Michigan is one of the few teams that can make it to my compression the rock downhill. Because if they get going and they get momentum going, it is tough to get them to slow back down. Right. They are not they are not front running in the sense of I would call like NC State or for earning team where like NC State got challenged at any point and they would roll over. They would roll over. Michigan is not that. But Michigan is for earning in a sense of if they get ahead if they get some momentum, they're taking that to 10. Like they're they're not coming back to you if they get an ounce of momentum. They are pushing that thing out as far as they can go. Right. You can't let them kind of get going like that especially early because they get going early. The whole game is going to be like that for you. Right. I do think that's one thing that Duke did and Purdue did pretty well. I think that Michigan was keeping them within arms length at all times. Right. Two straight buckets for Michigan. If you like some of them going call time out or you get a key bucket on the other end and then it kind of stems that. Arizona like if you're going to do the thing where you do the buy blow, buy a blow, buy a blow, maintain your composure, you have to be within striking distance. Michigan is better than anybody getting away from striking distance and pushing it further than that. So I think that's going to be key. The other part too, I talked about Arizona's got to defend Michigan's on the on the perimeter. I think that's that's key. Forcing turnover is eliminating three point makes for Michigan. Arizona famously does not shoot a lot of threes. Did everything at the rim, right? Well, here's another massive front line for you that's bigger than yours. How that works for Arizona and how they're able to get some buckets around the painter if they're not able to. The Michigan's rim defenses is as lead as it has been all season. It's going to impact this as well. I got a thing working at this with Michigan's perimeter offense against Arizona's interior offense. I think those are the two the two big things I'm going to swing this from me. But that's the thing is like yes, Michigan's an amazing rim protection defense. But what they're arguably better at is rim denial defense. They do not let you get there. They're forth in the entire country in fewest percentage of shot attempts allowed from inside the paint at the rim. And for Arizona, like I mentioned earlier, the first half of Purdue. And then you think about that loss to Kansas. It's when they get pushed out three four five feet away from the basket, rather than being able to find a way to get in to the hoop and put a defender into the basket. And Michigan is arguably the best team in the country. Their fourth and average two point distance. Their fourth and rim denial percentage. You don't get to the rim on Michigan. And Arizona doesn't force enough turnovers to dominate and transition. I just don't know like Purdue beat Michigan by just nailing those brain smith and TKR floaters over and over again. Copie can hit those even though they're like a flat missile. But that's just not Arizona's greatest strength. And I worry that they're going to be baited into a lot of mid-range pull-ups and floaters. And I like it's very, very, very hard to shoot 50% through two point range against Michigan. Only 17s all season have shot over 50%. It's just not easy. It's not. It's not. I feel like we've been talking for 15 minutes. We've been talking for 50. So we probably need to wrap this up and get our picks here. As I said before the tournament, both you and I picked Arizona in the championship. Who is playing in the title game and who's winning? I want to see if either of us have changed our minds. Arizona and Michigan are playing in the title again. No, I'm kidding. I hope I change my mind, but I think in the last five minutes I just talked myself into Michigan. I think this championship game I'm going to flop out of Arizona. I'm going to take Michigan. I'm going to say it's going to be Michigan UConn in the national championship. Okay. This is good because I have Arizona Illinois in the championship game. I think I expect the UConn Illinois game to be a surprisingly good game as well. I know everyone's going to be looking ahead to Michigan, Arizona, but that game is going to be plenty of entertaining as well. I think UConn's going to play much better. I think the matchup works pretty well for a close even game. But I'll lean Illinois there. It's not going to shock me, obviously, if Michigan wins at all. But the big things that I've, if we're going to stay true to what we've been saying all season, what I've been saying all season, it's about how matchup proof Arizona is. In the fact they can beat you playing any kind of way. And that Michigan does have some potential pitfalls that we've seen. That are a little bit more inconsistent. And if we are threading, nitpicking the most nitpicking things we can possibly do between two of the best teams that we've seen in recent years, I'm going to lean towards that. I would take Arizona in a close game. If it is close, I'm trusting Jane Bradley over everybody else. If it is close and slow because teams want to maximize possession, huge advantage Arizona. I just think they're going to have issues scoring in the half court and scoring oversize for Michigan. Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun to see. We'll be there in anapolis. Our next show will be from Indianapolis. It'll be a lot of fun to break down these games as they happen. Thank you guys for tuning in all season long. Thank you for tuning in in advance. As well had a lot of fun this season talking to you. It could be a lot of fun this weekend watching and talking to you as well. Matthew Winick, I'm Brian Ralph. Talk to you guys at the final four.