Mississippi, Vandy, Alabama discussed on CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball Podcast

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

You might have I'll give you a hint here. YouTube, you see what I'm doing on the YouTube. What have I got here? Oh, is it what's his Smith at Mississippi state? Yeah, I'm ringing my cowbell for those of you. You want to go obscure. And nothing obscure about it. He's one of the best players in the league over the last 6 weeks. You compare his stat line to Oscar she weighs over that same time. And the Oscars last 11 games, 16.1, 11.6. So he does have him beat on the glass, no surprise there. On 52.6% shooting. So best big man in the SEC right now, it's not Oscar. It's toluse Smith at Mississippi state. Good stuff. Let's talk bubble teams here. Teams that need to get at least one win to have their name called on selection Sunday. Arkansas auburn we talked to them that they should be safe. But just intriguing stuff to watch Mississippi state feels like the only team that actually qualifies here, vandy, I'm getting to you in just a second, hold on. All team sheet metrics as we record this on Monday afternoon from Mississippi state between 40 and 54. 7 and ten on the top two quadrants, they do have the loss against Georgia. Mississippi state is probably, if you want them in the field right now, they're one of the last two or three inn. I would think four quad one wins, I could go either way with this team. I would strongly advise clang a gets the win over Florida. I think it's out if it loses Kyle I gotta thank you agree. Yeah, you can't lose that game against a Florida team that doesn't have a Colin castleton. So talking about toluse Smith, no excuse for him not to eat in that game against the Gators and then you look at Mississippi state in a potential quarterfinal matchup with Alabama. They took Alabama down to the wire in Tuscaloosa, several weeks back before the Brandon Miller stuff came out. So I don't think they'll necessarily be in any way shape or form intimidated by a potential quarterfinal game against Alabama. So I mean, tip in my hand here, but Mississippi state is sort of my dark horse and they might even qualify as I quote unquote bid thief given where they stand as one of the last four in at the moment, according to Jerry palm. So they're a dangerous team, a team that's been playing well over the last few weeks. And yeah, absolutely must win against a Florida team that only chance at this point for them would be to run the table. And that's not going to happen without castleton. Now let's talk vanity real quick. This was a ten and 12 team entering February. It is one 8 of its past 9. The only loss at LSU, the 15 seat in this conference, but it is closing in. It just needs to, it needs to make a run here in the tournament because right now it's metrics just don't support and at large case. 83 in the net, 85 and BPI, 81 and Ken palm, 70 in Sagar and it is healthy and KPI at 40, and then 52 in strength of record. But it's sub 500 quad one quad two, but it's a good record, 9 and ten. That's better than a lot of other teams. And then it's got the three combined Q three Q four losses, which is what's dragging it down. Vandy, I can't call you a bubble team yet. You need to beat Kentucky. If vandy beats Kentucky, we've got a really interesting conversation, but you got to do it. We'll keep an eye on that. Jerry stackhouse has done a really, really good job. And on that note, as I transitioned, vandy is my pick for bid thief or fringe bubble team that can win it. If I'm looking at this bracket right here, you know, if you're watching on YouTube, please again. Go ahead. You don't even have to smash. How much does a little touch? We'll touch first if you could. Appreciate you so much. Vandy over Kentucky is on a conceivable because hello. We just saw it happen. And then you got Arkansas a and M or auburn in the semis. All that is a gettable situation. So I do expect the SEC similar to what we talked about in the Big Ten episode to be, I think there's going to be I think Cobb, we are going to have, we are going to see in these conference tournaments, a level of exciting finishes, but results on balance that are going to reflect what we just watched for three and a half months. I mean, there had never been more ranked teams that lost to unranked opponents this season than ever before. This was the most in any given season we've ever seen that. And ranked teams in total took more losses in the regular season than any season before. So I think these conference tournaments are going to reflect that and I think that you're going to have at most two one seeds of the 6 big 6 leagues win when their conference tournaments too. I set the over under on HQ at 1.5. I'm saying it's two. I do think Alabama has a chance to be one of them, but my long shot dark horse bid thief candidate. It's vandy on the 6th line. Who do you got? Yeah, I'm going Mississippi state and it's just because I'm a little worried about the sustainability with Vanderbilt now that Liam Robbins is done. That's a tough pill for them to swallow. And I know they overcame that their regular season finale and all the credit in the world goes to stack for figuring this thing out and going from a coach who I thought was on the hot seat in early January to one who is now receiving widespread praise for doing an incredible job. And that that praise will only grow if he does manage to piece something together here without their big man and Liam Robbins. But yeah, this would be sad as that team for me. You go back and look, they were one in 7 to start the league play this year, but it's because for their first 8 games in league, we're against either Alabama or Tennessee. It was just an absolutely front loaded schedule. And now they're deep into year one under Christians. It seems like that roster understands how he wants to play and toluse Smith is on an incredible heater. So yeah, this would be safe that team that I think could I would pick to sort of make a surprise run here this week. You mentioned hot seat stuff. The only situation in the SEC where that applies a little miss already fired Kermit Davis, everyone else, as things stand right now anyway, not expected to have any other coaching changes in that Lake before we pick our title game matchup in winter. I got to ask you about your vaults. Just talk on them real quick here. They're the 5 seed no ziegler out for the year with an ACL, a Tennessee was thought to maybe potentially be the one seat in this conference, you know, a couple months back and we look up here, they assemble the bracket, shakes out like this.

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