Houston, Ej Liddell, UAB discussed on CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Cabo start with you. What first round game in the south regional? Are you most looking forward to? Yeah, I would say probably loyal to Chicago and Ohio State. I think Vegas has it as something pretty close to a pick them and you're talking about in Ohio State team there with EJ Liddell, who's going to be looking for some redemption after they got bounced in the first round by oral Roberts last season back when the buckeyes were a two seat then they come in as a 7 seed this season and they've lost four out of their last 5. So I think loyal of Chicago is going to be a pick for a lot of just common folks out there filling in the bracket just based off a name recognition at this point, but I'm real curious to see if EJ Liddell can secure some redemption for the way that oil Roberts game ended last season. Chip? I know we've got to give respect, give some respect to Chris holtman, right? We need to give him, I guess. He doesn't get enough. He doesn't get enough, but he also doesn't have a lot of deep NCAA tournament runs. It's just, you know, just gonna throw that out there as we're talking about respect for Ohio State. I'll tell you what, the number one thing that I'm looking to check in on. And again, this is because I think the result will influence so much of how the entire bracket breaks. But Illinois Chattanooga is just such a fun game. And I think that when I look at Chattanooga and we see that the way that the mocks have played, we see that they're going to find themselves clearly at a disadvantage at trying to take care of Kofi coburn in general, but I think that that is a Chattanooga team that if Illinois plays down the way that Illinois has played down at times this season, then they potentially could be upset. Illinois at its ceiling could be the team that comes out of this region and makes it all the way to the final four and because I'm looking at a high variance team capable of a deep run, but one that also based on the worst of its basketball in the last month or so could get bounced. That four 13 Illinois Chattanooga game is a lot of my attention. My favorite ones Houston UAB. It's a 12 5 matchup. Houston, the outright AAC champions, Houston won the AAC tournament. Houston's top 5 in basically all computers, but only a 5 C because they really didn't get much done in the regular season in terms of big wins. I believe, as of this moment, they've got one quadrant one win, and it is Sunday's win over Memphis. David Cobb, do we believe in the Houston cougars or do we think jelly walker? Got a chance to upset him. He's a bucket. Jordan walker, name to know. Certainly a bucket in the south region. I've actually got UAB one in this. I think point spreads. This is the biggest upset, not just in my south region, but in my entire 60 18 bracket for the first round is UAB as a 12 and 8 and a half point favorite per the line that I picked today on CBS sports dot com excuse me, Houston in 8 and a half points every day. I think UAB wins the game straight up. It just feels to me like a team of destiny. They want a three overtime game and the C USA tournament semifinals. And then you're talking about a Houston team and we've been beating this drum all year to their credit. They've overcome it repeatedly, but those injuries at some point to market faster and trade on Mark have to catch up with Houston. And I just feel like this is a program that will eventually or pretty soon make another deep NCAA tournament run. I just can't look at this Houston roster with it in its current health condition and see a team that's going to do anything in this tournament. And perhaps I'll be lambasted in a few days for sleeping on Kelvin Sampson, who has done a phenomenal job this season with the hand he's been dealt, but I don't see Houston making a whole lot of noise in this bracket. I'm with you. And listen, my respect level for Kelvin Sampson is well documented. I think he's probably one of the 5 to ten best coaches in the sport. What he has built at Houston relative to what he took over, incredible. But here's the truth. There's not a team in the country that could lose two of his top four players and you would still think they're going to have a deep run in the NCAA tournament. The reason it really didn't impact Houston season regular season too much is because who was going to be them. Memphis? Memphis the only team that could just out talent them really, even after they lost two of the top four players. The American the season was just not very good outside of Houston, Memphis, and SMU, I guess. So missing to your top four players in the American athletic conference, if you're Kelvin sanson in Houston, that's how great he is. He could still walk through that pretty much without issue, but now you've got to walk through a bracket where you're running into real teams that are capable of beating you. I'm not insisting UAB will will be the team that does it. But I will be surprised if Houston is in the sweet 16. Before we go into the key element to that game, is three point shooting. Houston, one of the best three point shooting defenses in the country. UAB by percentage, one of the best three point shooting teams in the country. So Houston's three point defense, they allow opponents to shoot like 29% from three. Houston shoots about UAB shoots about 38% from three. Anyway, if you can hit threes, they're going to win that game. That's where it all comes down to because Houston's strength is defending the three. UAB is strength is hitting the three. Do we see any unlikely suite 16 teams here? We're going to get to that next, but real quick, let me remind you about our bracket challenge game. We want you to compete with us. So do it. I'm going to be in there, norlander, Cal Boone, David Cobb chip, Patterson. You can join at CBS sports dot com slash CBS I on brackets. That's.