Boomo Bugg Show 032426

[0:00] Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's Exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. New Exclusive Inside Track to the Tide, Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9, The Score. Good afternoon and welcome in to the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Brett Beaird, welcome in where Alabama breaks out the polishing rag for a day game.

Good afternoon, welcome in and how are you? Happy Tuesday to you and the listeners. Ryan Passink rejoined us a little bit later to recap an incredible weekend in Tampa for the Crimson Tide and previews the Michigan Wolverines in Chicago. Las Vegas insider Bruce Marshall will preview the Sweet 16. But Roger is here right now to talk about one of the most successful weekends in the University of Alabama Athletics history. I guess that explains why he's got a big smile on his face. If not, we can delve deeper into that.

But first, let's say hello to the man, Roger Hoover. He's always on the microphone on the Crimson Tide Sports Network. Roger, welcome in. How are you? Boomo Bugg, I'm headed your way. I'm getting ready for baseball tonight between Alabama and Austin Tee over there in Madison at Toyota Field. So I'm definitely excited and indeed a smile on my face on this gorgeous Tuesday afternoon. Talk to us about that, Roger. That's one of the prettiest venues for baseball anywhere, is it not? It really is. It's a very good home.

And just any time you get to go to a professional baseball setting, and especially with what Alabama's gotten to go through over the last few weeks, playing on so much artificial turf and just, you know, turf mound, just not seeming like baseball, but what Alabama had against Kentucky and South Alabama. You know, for the guys, it's refreshing to get back to dirt and grass this weekend in South Calusa. And the same tonight when you get to go to a really, truly manicured professional field and, again, a great clubhouse, great setting for baseball.

So much to do around that ballpark with the restaurants and the shops and everything like that. So I think everybody's really looking forward to this challenge tonight as Alabama takes on Austin Peay. And, again, just a good change of pace after a very good weekend for the baseball program. Roger, while we're on baseball, let me ask you about what was one of the surprise surprises in college sports. Alabama sweeping the mighty Florida Gators, including a Friday night no-hitter by Tyler Faye, who is, wow, the SEC Pitcher of the Week, the first nine-inning no-hitter since 1942.

Brady Neal was also an SEC Player of the Week. Roger, tell us about one of the best weekends in the history of Alabama baseball. Well, it was so good, especially considering the tough games that Alabama had just gone through, you know, getting swept to Kentucky, losing to South Alabama last Tuesday in a five-er night, which seemingly nothing went right for this group. So I think a lot of people were already starting to write off this team, even some Alabama fans saying, okay, this doesn't really look like a very good year.

And then all of a sudden you get the weekend of all weekends that we've probably seen for Alabama baseball over the last few years. Starting with Tyler Faye, just remarkable the way he was able to bounce back after he allowed seven runs against Kentucky the previous week. But you know what? In those outings, it was just kind of a pitch here and there that got him to where he allowed those seven runs. He ended up pitching seven innings in that ballgame. And thank goodness Alabama did not take him out of the ballgame early.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to stay in this no-hit bid against Florida as long as he did if he didn't get that pitch down around the 100 the week before. So he just had tremendous control. Everything was really working for him. And, you know, once he got through that seventh inning, he was kind of like, okay, that's probably it. But he came back to the eighth, had an easy, crazy eighth inning, and that allowed the coaching staff to give him the ball once again in the ninth inning to do something truly historic that is really going to be rare to see moving forward.

A solo nine-inning no-hitter is going to be extremely rare moving forward in college football just with how much pitching coaches really limit, how many pitches the pitchers can do, let alone through an inning, you know, not even just looking at a full game. So I'm thrilled for Tyler Faye. He's a great guy, somebody that's really worked his way up on the pitching staff from a few years ago when he was kind of a questionable bullpen arm in midweek games, now seeing a Friday night starter in the SEC with a no-hitter under his belt.

It's tremendous. And they get capitalized on the momentum from that Friday. Good Saturday ball game with Zane Adams looking sharp at his start. And then Sunday's game did knock it off to a great start. The Alabama starter miles off the first inning, but this team kept fighting. Great performance by Brady Neal, as you mentioned, the player of the week. Seven runs driven in. Will Plattner, the captain's team, had a game-time home run. So I think this team over the weekend performed more to what Rob Vaughn has been telling us this group's capable of than maybe what we've seen in the first few weeks of the season.

[5:25] So I just hope it's a great springboard. I think it should be a very exciting season in Alabama. Roger Hoover, Crimson Tide Sports Network. Roger, it's a pretty good weekend for the men's basketball team, too. 90-70 against Hofstra, 90-65 against Texas Tech. If somebody said against Texas Tech, if you're going to beat them by 25 points without Aiden Holloway at all, and not only nine from Phylon, what would you have told them before the game, Roger? You're crazy. No, it's definitely a performance that I think everyone would be proud of.

And I think the one benefit of not having Holloway on the roster is we get to see more from guys like Latrell Wrightsville, Jr. and Houston Millett, who are certainly capable. And you guys see this every year. The teams that are older in March Madness usually have more success than Alabama, has time on their side with guys like Wrightsville and Millett and Phylon performing at an all-American level. It's exciting to see what this group is capable of. And I know Brian Passick will break it down in better detail than I can coming up later on in your show.

But I love seeing those results come in and watching that team play with just a lot of fun. The Medita concept from Coach Murphy having joy and other success, that's really alive and well on this team, especially for a guy like Noah Williamson, who's been through his ups and downs this season. He even had to deal with Charles Mediaco taking away some of his playing time earlier in the year. All of that's made Noah Williamson better. And we've all said all season long, at some point, he's going to help this team win basketball games in March.

And he certainly did that on Sunday for the Crimson Tide. And I think he's going to be very key coming up in this matchup along with David Sherell on Friday against the Wolverines. Roger, it's been rather amusing to me to watch some of the national narrative. Well, Alabama didn't play very well against some of the top teams. They lost by seven to Purdue. Yes, there's no question. Arizona came into Birmingham in the second half, ran Alabama out of the gym. But Alabama out of the Sweet 16, Alabama's played seven and beaten four.

And if they play with the intensity, they rebound and play defense the way they did against Texas Tech. Let's just see what happens. I agree with you. I think it's going to be really, really good to see the Crimson Tide at full strength right now with the players they have available. And again, playing was just a lot of fun. And toughness, I think the defensive end was maybe even more impressive than what Alabama did offensively against Texas Tech. So that defense has got to be there against a very good Michigan team.

It's going to be coming up on Friday. And then hopefully from there you can move on and get the program back to the Elite Eight, obviously. And then the final four after that, NATO just knows how to build a consistent winner. And every year we say the same thing. Man, the roster is completely turned over. There's no way Alabama replicates the success before. He keeps finding a way to get this group to the Sweet 16 now, four years in a row. Man, it would be great to see a Elite Eight in beyond for this team because they deserve it with the hard work they've poured into this team.

Roger, your thoughts. Let's not kid ourselves. This is a huge test. A lot of folks have Michigan may be the best team in the country. Alabama comes in. I looked at, correct me if I'm wrong, as far as what Vegas is saying. Bama has the biggest odds again from advancing in the Sweet 16. I think it's like 10 and a half. You look at that two different ways. One is, oh my gosh, they're big, let's run. Or you can say, you know what, we see the challenge, let's meet the challenge, see where the chips fall.

Your thoughts about the mindset of coming into, in terms of Vegas anyway, a David-Goliath matchup? Yeah, it really reminds me of two years ago, Alabama against North Carolina in that Sweet 16 matchup in Los Angeles when North Carolina was the experienced team on paper, the one that the oddsmakers all favored to get. Alabama played a brilliant ball game and had someone step up in Jaron Stephenson that a lot of people weren't expecting to step up. Or Stephenson at that point had been a disappointment to most Alabama fans throughout the years.

So I think that kind of plays into Alabama's hands once again. Somebody on this roster is going to have a career night getting ready for this Michigan game. And if Alabama's successful, if not successful, obviously that changes. And I think LeBaron Cylon, too, I think he knows this is his moment. He came back to make sure that he raised his draft stock once again. And there's nothing like raising your stock, like performing well in the NCAA tournament, especially second weekend and beyond. So I think he's going to take this extremely personal, and you're going to see the most focused and best basketball fair and pylon play.

And he's got to make sure not only he's getting his shots, but taking care of the basketball, limiting his turnovers, helping out his teammates. But he's got such a great support he's got around him. I keep talking about Houston Millett and Latrell Wright-Bell Jr. It's just a blessing that those guys are in the position to help fly a lot in what is going to be the brightest life he's ever played under coming up this week in Chicago. Absolutely. I was watching and listening to you yesterday, hoping Alabama would come back late in that game.

[10:35] I know there were two key turnovers. And fortunately, that man ends up losing a heartbreaker, 69-68 to third seeded Louisville. In Louisville, I think there were 13 lead changes. 24-11, though, Roger, overall. It was a tremendous season. They beat Rhode Island, I was listening to you, Saturday afternoon. Then they played Louisville, hoping to get Alabama to the Sweet 16, I think, for the first time since 1998. I know they're disappointed, but Christy Curry continues to build this program. Bama finishes 24-11 overall this season. Yeah, once again, a great job by Coach Curry and her staff getting this team that didn't have a lot of expectations, and frankly going into the season about being able to get back to the NCAA tournament round of 32 or even something early in the year.

You know, is this group even going to finish in the top half of the SEC? Are they going to be an NCAA tournament team with all they lost, three WNBA draft picks from a year ago, and just so much of the heartbeat of that team with Sarah Ashley, Barker, and Aaliyah Nye moving on? So, Jackie Simmons and Carly Weathers have proved to be a pretty strong heartbeat, replacing them and stepping up their games to new levels. And, man, it's so heartbreaking to see the season come to a close because you've wanted so much more for those two, especially just to continue their time in an Alabama jersey, especially Carly, who supported four years of this program.

Her family coming in from Loretta, great, great support staff and support system that she has, and she represented Alabama the right way. And I love the fact that, you know, only three-pointers we got in the fourth quarter were from number 22, including that one that made it a one-point game and just coming up just short. It's heartbreaking for that team, but a remarkable run that Alabama's been able to have, and something that's frankly really hard to do, getting to that round of 32, three straight seasons for Alabama just shows that Chrissy Curry's not just built an NCAA tournament team year in, year out.

She's got a winning NCAA tournament team, and she'll keep knocking on the door, and Alabama will keep fighting as to break through that ceiling and make it back to the Sweet 16 and beyond in the future. I certainly can believe that. Roger, quickly before we jump off, does Alabama still have a football team, and are they doing anything these days in your backyard? Football? What's a football, Buck? Christmas. Yes, they are back on the practice field. Spring break is over, and they are getting ready for what's coming up on a day in a few weeks.

Look forward to hearing more of the updates, so we continue hearing about the line of scrimmages, the point of defense sits on both sides of the ball, and a lot of excitement about what that group is able to do. In addition to that, really veteran secondary, and I know Fabian Brown got to meet with the media earlier today. We know what he's capable of, Ray Hubbard. It's exciting to see how that group is going to come together throughout the course of spring practice. Yes, they are working hard, and Caelan DeBoer, I think, is just fine with a low-profile spring practice.

He is happy with men's basketball, baseball, softball, kind of getting their flowers at this time. The work will be there for the football team. Don't you question? Listen, safe travels to God's country. Good luck tonight. By the way, I hear a rumor that that team from Lee County is coming to Tuscaloosa this weekend. Who have you got on Crimson Drive Tuesday and Thursday, and where can we get online and listen to everything? Well, on Crimson Drive later today, we'll have Brooke Wells, an outstanding first baseman for the Crimson Tide softball team.

She'll be joining us along with Caelan looking back at that no-hitter that Tyler Faye had this past Friday. So a lot of that coming up this afternoon. Some more baseball and softball guests on Thursday. They haven't finalized just yet. We'll have some good interviews there along with Richard Hendricks, the pride of Athens, Alabama. We'll break down Alabama against Michigan. A great preview for Richard coming up on Thursday. And, yes, baseball against the Auburn Tigers over the weekend. We're excited for that. I'll be kind of back and forth between us and two-hour plus and the radio call for those ball games.

So a very busy week ahead. And then cheering on the guys in Chicago. And you have Brian Taffing coming up on your show later. Just ask him if he is getting to see his favorite hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks, when he makes the trip later on the weekend. Can you do that for everybody and ask him if he's going back to the United Center for any hockey coming up? I appreciate the heads up. We will ask him that in some more personal questions, too, Rod. You can rest assured of that.

Listen, man. He's talking to you about the Chicago Blackhawks, so he hates the Calgary play. So he'll appreciate that question. I appreciate it. Hey, listen, man. Enjoy Trash Pandaville tonight, okay? I will. Well, thanks, guys, for having me on. Roll Tide. Thank you, buddy. Roger Hoover. I'm going to be there with the Alabama Crimson Tide Network. Coming up, the man who's an expert on Alabama basketball and the Chicago Blackhawks, the aforementioned Brian Pasek, on deck. Stay with us. Their handshakes are said to be legally binding.

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Roger Hoover was the first guest on our show who's done a marvelous job at women's basketball. He dropped a tidbit about Brian Passick being the world's greatest Blackhawk fan, Chicago Blackhawk hockey fan, and we wanted to get him on the show, Harold, to confirm that. Well, let's raise the curtain and say hello to the man, Mr. Blackhawk himself, Brian Passick, when he's not busy chasing the puck. He is busy about on the microphone on the Alabama Crimson Tide Network doing Alabama basketball. Brian, welcome in. How are you?

Go Hawks! Let's go! You're in a select, I mean, you're talking about a select group of people in our neck of the woods. Brian, there's got to be a story there. You just don't wake up and say, gee, Dad, I'm going to be a Chicago Blackhawk fan. What's the story there, man? All right, so the lesson here is never believe anything that Roger Hoover tells you. Okay, I'm going to write that down. Yeah, so that's lesson number one. If you offered me a billion dollars to name one current or former Chicago Blackhawk player, I would still be poor.

I've been to one Chicago Blackhawk game. I enjoyed it very much. It was with our buddy, Roger Hoover, who filled in for Chris Stewart earlier this season when we played Illinois at the United Center. The night before, went over and watched, and we were around a bunch of fans that were into the game, and I thought, hey, why not join in with the passion of the Blackhawks fans? And I cheered like I had been rooting for the Blackhawks since birth. We had a great time. I haven't watched a Blackhawks game before or since then, but it was a great night and a great trip to Chicago, and I'm hoping for another one.

Listen, if the Blackhawks are playing while we're in town, you never know. I'm going to 2-0 with the Blackhawks. Well, they need your help there last in the Central Division, so they need all the help they can get. Let's talk a little bit about, Brian, about what else you're going to be doing up there. That is a pretty important trip. We won't talk about that, but boy, I tell you what, it's a secret to this game. Tip the game off after 9 o'clock. That, to me, was about as close to perfect as Alabama's played this year.

I know the Hofstra game. We know about that, but Texas Tech, they had all this money coming in, NIL, and Alabama. That's the team that Alabama fans have been waiting to show up, play defense, rebound, hit your threes, and come away with a big win. Yeah, what a performance by Alabama on both ends of the floor. I mean, the 19 threes maybe get the headlines, but for those of us, all of us, and those listening that have followed this team closely over the course of the season, you know that the difference in that game was how well Alabama defended.

This Texas Tech team, although not full speed, obviously, JT Toppin was out for the season and got hurt about a month ago, but they've had some big wins without them, and they are a very good team. And it was one of the best, if not the very best, point shooting team that Alabama has played this season. And the perimeter defense on the Red Raiders was as good as it gets. I mean, this is a Texas Tech team that doesn't miss open threes, and I don't know that they missed an open three.

They didn't take an open three because they were all guarded. Alabama's game plan and execution flawless on the defensive end, and when you couple that with 19 made threes, you get a half-empty arena at halftime because everybody's gone home. It was late. The game was well in hand, and Bama advanced in easy fashion to the Sweet 16. I did not see that coming before the game. I thought it was going to be back and forth a tight one against a really good Texas Tech team, but Bama was incredible on Sunday night.

If you look at the national pundits in Las Vegas, and we're going to talk to our Las Vegas insider here shortly, Alabama shouldn't even spend the money, the travel expense. They're 10-and-a-half point underdog. Michigan's got the Big Ten Player of the Year in Laxhill, Lindeborg, who is a UAB transfer. They've got a 7-4 center, a day Mars, more, I'm sorry, Elliot Cadeau, a point guard, Johnson, another Ford, and Amari Burnett, who played for Alabama in 22 and 23. And I reminded someone earlier today, Alabama's played seven teams who were in the Sweet 16, and they've beaten four.

[26:24] St. John's, Illinois, and the United Center, as you mentioned, November 19th. Arkansas and Tennessee, so my answer was I think Alabama will probably get on the charter and go to the United Center. Yeah, you know, I haven't talked to the players about this, but I think they're going to go ahead and get on the plane and see what happens on Friday night. Listen, I understand the respect that Michigan is getting. I think that Michigan and Arizona are the two best teams in the country, and then there's a gap.

And then there's some really good teams. And I think Alabama is in that next tier of really good teams. And if this was a seven-game series, I would take Michigan. But in a one-and-done, it's March Madness. We all know what can happen. This isn't, you know, the best matchup for Alabama. I mean, with the size, the length of Michigan, the way that they play, Alabama has had a difficult time with teams like this. But this is also, I think, if not the most well-coached team in the country in Alabama, right there, as good as anybody in college basketball, for coming up with a game plan to beat a team that maybe you're not projected to beat.

You just go back a couple years ago, Alabama, in a very similar situation, was rolling in to Los Angeles to play the number one seed, North Carolina Tar Heels. And the talk around Los Angeles leading up to that game was the excitement level around seeing North Carolina and Arizona play in the Elite Eight to see who goes to the Final Four. And, obviously, that didn't happen. It was Alabama and Clemson, and it was Bama advancing to their first-ever Final Four. So, you don't know what can happen.

I mean, I like the way that this team is playing. I like the way that they're trending on the defensive end and on the backboard. I would love to see 19, 20 made threes against Michigan. But more than that, I would love to see this team compete on the backboard the way they did against Texas Tech. If they do that, I think they're going to give themselves a great chance to win this game. Brian, passing, kicking up with us. Brian, to me, the intangibles, it just comes out of every poor on this team.

This team, you're closer to it. They need an Oscar. What I'm about to say is not true. They're great actors. Or this team really cares about one another. You've been a player back in the day. You cannot underestimate the importance of being a we, not a me kind of guy. It just seems like these guys, they have fun as a group. Yeah, it's genuine. It really is. And we've heard Nate Oates talk about Mudita, which is stolen. And he's fine with it from the softball team and Coach Patrick Murphy.

And, you know, I know most everybody listening has heard that, understands what it means. But for those that don't, it's taking as much joy in your teammates' success as if it was your own. And they really exude that. And we've seen that over the course of the season and even more so in the postseason play, during postseason play. And it's even spilled over to the parents. We talked about it a little bit on the air. But I think it was Latrell Reitzel hit a three against Hofstra.

And it was Houston Millett's dad that was celebrating like it was his own child. And one of the fun things about this tournament, especially when you're at a NCAA tournament site for an extended period of time, I got to spend a lot of time with the parents of the players. You know, when I first started, I joked with some of the parents that when I first started on the radio, I was friends with the players and now I'm friends with the players' parents because of, you know, the age proximity.

But it was really interesting to talk to those parents about how much they love the other parents, the other kids on the team, the players on the team, and that bond that they all have. It was really cool to see. And I think it's a big reason why Alabama is where they are. After all the injuries, after all the adversity, they could have folded. They've done the opposite of that, really come together and playing their best basketball. Now, Chris Stewart is going to turn to you a few minutes for tip-off and say, Brian Passink, what are your keys to the University of Alabama beating those big, bad Michigan Wolverines?

What are you going to say? Well, I mean, Alabama has to play its game on the offensive end, play with pace. To do that, you've got to defend, you've got to rebound. And what Nate Oates teams have done that I don't think gets enough attention is they get better as the year progresses. They play their best basketball, typically this time of year. That's why we're talking about a fourth straight Sweet 16 and a Final Four a couple years ago, Elite Eight, hopefully further than just a Sweet 16 this year.

[31:39] But they get better and they're playing their best on the defensive end. And the Final Four year, that was the case. That was a team that really struggled defensively and looked like a completely different team on that end of the floor in March in the NCAA tournament. I thought we started to see that late in the season, in the regular season, and we've definitely seen it in the NCAA tournament. It's not going to be easy. Michigan is a great team. Maybe the best team in the country.

It's going to take a great effort, but I expect Alabama to come out and play really well on Friday night. Well, listen, start packing and don't forget that Blackhawk jersey that you've gone in the bottom of the drawer. Listen, make it an extended stay. Hopefully, you can go to the laundromat again sometime over the weekend. Safe travels. Listen, again, I mentioned this last week. We had the chance to talk extensively in Nashville. University of Alabama in Learfield is very, very lucky to have Brian Passink as a member of their team.

And we wish you a lot of luck in Chicago. Well, you guys are always kind to have me in time to say that. And I enjoy being with you. And hopefully, we get to talk sometime next week about this team advancing even further in this tournament. And, you know, we'll see what happens. All we ask is that you bring us back some Chicago-style pizza. Is that a deal, Brian? I'll do it. That sounds great. I can't wait to get to Chicago and get into that. See you, Brian Passink on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.

Again, we kind of mentioned Vegas and what they're saying about this game. What are they saying about all the games of the Nets? Bruce Marshall, the details next for the Bumult Bug Show. Stay with us. Get ready for March Madness like never before. Mugshots Grill & Bar invites you to join us for our March Madness Mania. Watch all the games on our massive TVs. And it's just in time for our new Smash Burgers. You can enjoy some of our signature burgers now as Smash Burgers. The Savelle, McDowell, Signature, Texas, and Southern can now be Smash Burgers.

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To wrap up spring training play, the Braves are scheduled to open up the regular season at home Friday against the Royals. Bundle auto and home, renters, or condo, and save with Progressive. I'm John Thayer with the Sports Flash, presented by Progressive on 93.9 The Score. It's tax time, y'all. If you want to file free, this next one's for you. Love that jam. Up next, commercials. Intuit TurboTax Free Edition. See if you qualify at TurboTax.com slash free. No schedules except for earned income tax credit, child tax credit, student loan interest, and Schedule 1A.

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Bruce Marshall, it's a pleasure for us to say he's back with a gold sheet, wager talk, Las Vegas insider. Winners and whiners, picks and parlays, Bowns, Sports.net, Bet Rivers, Vegas insider, you name it. He is a busy boy. Bruce Marshall, welcome in. How are you? I'm having basketballs coming out of my ears after this weekend. So, it's kind of nice not having to watch any of you. It's just a little NBA, I guess. But, yeah. By the time that Alabama game ended, I thought it would never end against Texas Tech the other night.

Bruce, you like Brent and I, your bracket is still perfect, too. Your thoughts to date, it looks like to me that chalk pretty much is dominated. Bruce, your thoughts looking at the perspective of someone in Vegas, your thoughts so far about the dance? Yeah, it has been very chalky. And it's been, you know, the power leagues and especially the Big Ten, which has really asserted itself here. And just watching the games, you could tell that, you know, just a little bit, you know, more physical. It's generally an older league, though.

There are some freshmen still contributing, too, you know, like fears of Michigan State and such. But it just looks like they're playing sort of a different game. And the fact that Iowa could beat Florida like that is really interesting. By the way, I am a big fan of Ben McCollum, Iowa coach. I was at Drake last year. He does remind me of Count Dracula a little bit. But he, my goodness, the guy is a big-time winner. And speaking of grooming and all, someone has got to get the Purdue guys, pull them off to the side and say, this Amish look just doesn't cut it for these guys with the way their beards are.

Is this, you know, I think Franklin and Marshall is the school that's in Lancaster, PA. So you play at Purdue, not Franklin and Marshall. If they went out to Hollywood, they would groom those guys up to look. Kind of normal. So, anyway, the Amish side looks very good, though, because Purdue, you know, Purdue's caught fire, and they are playing well. The humor of Bruce Marshall coming out today. All right. Alabama pulled out a candle. Whoop, you know what, even though, as you mentioned, the game seemed to go on forever.

Just imagine what it was in the Eastern time zone. But Alabama played much better. This team's beginning to peak a little bit now. Even with Aiden Holloway out of the picture and Bidiaco, they played better defense. They played with a lot of intensity. They out-rebounded Texas Tech. Michigan is a different animal, as we all know. They're a 10-and-a-half-point favorite, according to Vegas, and they should be. They've got the Big Ten player of the year, the former UAB transfer, Lindenborg, a 7-4 center, point guards out of the Ying Gang.

[42:01] And some of the national opponents don't think Alabama should waste travel expenses. But this team is playing pretty well, Michigan and Alabama. Well, I think they make 19 threes again, like they did against the Texas Tech. And once they got that guy, they were in a little trouble against Hofstra. I mean, they were down 10 in the first half, and then they didn't control that game. But they have this puncher's chance against anybody because of the way all the threes have fallen in. And you're right, they have, you know, survived some distractions this year.

The Bidiaco stuff, I mean, who knows how much that internally sort of, I mean, is he playing, is he not playing? And that just sort of disrupted things a bit in the second half of the season. And then the recent Holloway thing, but they certainly overcame that last weekend. I have thought in my, you know, people I've talked to about this, that that Michigan front line is great. Lindenborg is really good. I mean, he turned out to be one of the best players out of the portal last year.

And they got him and Merez Johnson from Illinois doing the dirty work, and that lets the 7-3-7-4 kid from UCLA and Spain, Mara, do his thing, which is really blocking shots. But I don't know on the perimeter how strong they are. We saw their guards really get taken to school by Duke in that game last month in Washington, D.C., and a few other times down the stretch. So I don't know if it's an elite backcourt that Michigan has. And maybe Phylon and some of the other Bama shooters can get some rhythm going.

I think they have got a shot in this game because of the way the threes are falling. I have thought Michigan could be a bit vulnerable at some point before we get to the Final Four. I thought they peaked a little bit too soon this year. We will see. But I give them a puncher's chance in this one on Friday. Let's go back to Thursday. Bruce Marshall, again, goal sheets, last wager talk. Now it gets rolling at 6-10 hour time with the aforementioned Amish, also known as the Boilermakers from Purdue.

How about Texas? This is a team that was given up for dead, and they just keep on rocking and rolling. How about Teos? Well, they have, and this is the one team I think, you know, once in a while you see a team coming from the first four. I mean, UCLA did that a few years ago. It was the COVID tournament. VCU did that with Shaka the year they got the Final Four. You just catch fire, and sometimes you need that ignition point. And they got it in that game against NC State, I think.

And then they looked good, you know, over the weekend there in Portland, and certainly took out Gonzaga. I think they have got a shot. This is not a great defensive team, but they are. They've got some different weapons there. And the way they can, the Lithuanian kid down, Vokitidis down low has put up some big numbers, and they've got some guys who can score out there, you know, on the perimeter. I think this is going to be kind of a tough game for Purdue, and I would give Texas a shot.

Purdue, things went, I mean, the matchup, they were in some trouble against Miami, and they did pull that game out. I don't want to get too excited about the Queens game or even the Big Ten tournament. They did get the big kid from South Dakota State, has finally started to score. And Plough was a guy they really thought highly of when they brought him in in the portal. He went weeks without doing much at all, but he has awakened recently. And they do have experience. They've got three guys who played in the championship game two years ago, those guards.

And, of course, Kaufman-Renis put some pretty big numbers. So they're good, and they are peaking, I think, but so is Texas. I think this is a live underdog in this one. Bruce Marshall in the huddle with us. Let's talk about the cornfield. Iowa, by the way, the state of Iowa owns the SEC, right? Knocking off Kentucky and Florida. Iowa taking on Nebraska. Your thoughts about that matchup? You mentioned the coach at Iowa. I love what he said. I'm not for everybody. If you're looking to be coddled and told how great you are, this may not be the best fit.

If you want to come and turn from a boy to a man, do it the right way, then Iowa's a good place. To me, that's refreshing. It is to me, too. And McCormick is no nonsense. I think, tactically, I mean, he is the closest thing to Bob Knight. It's just tactically. He doesn't have to act like Knight. But, I mean, he really has this stuff figured out what to do. I have enjoyed watching Iowa all year. Now, they're not a run-and-gun sort of team. But, man, they just, the offense, the way it works, the way they play, they're conscientious on defense.

You know, you can, it's interesting to control, just by controlling the pace doesn't mean you're a dull team. I mean, they really, they work hard to isolate Sturt, who I think is one of the best players in the country. And the way they executed that game-winning shot by Fulgaris was a thing of beauty, really. I mean, the way they just sort of, you know, suckered Florida into chasing Sturt's up court. And then, all of a sudden, he's got his chance. And they, it was like, went perfectly to plan for McCollum.

[47:22] And we've been seeing that all year. I think they've got some limitations. I don't know that they can create a lot of offense just on its own. And Sturt's, Sturt's is good, though. I mean, if they have to do it, they can go there. And I think Nebraska might have a few more shot creators perhaps. I mean, Sandofort, this is interesting, because he had been at Iowa before. And they played two times this season and split. But I'm kind of riding this McCollum thing here. I just think, and then nothing against Hoiberg, because I think Fred's done a really good job in Nebraska, too.

And they're sort of similar to Iowa, in a way. But this attention to defense that Iowa has, the fact Sturt's, I think, is the one guy, even more than Sanford, and the freshman on Nebraska, who's playing very well, too. But I think Sturt's could be the difference and could push Iowa all the way to the Elite Eight. All right, let me ask you about the other Iowa team, Iowa State at Tennessee. It's the last game of the Sweet 16, another 9-10 special, Central Time. My question here, who is the, which star player's healthier?

Iowa State, Joshua Jefferson or Nate, amen, at Tennessee. Tennessee with Rick Barnes, again, a physical, you up, play defense. Gillespie's good, the guard, Opara, amen. And then Leipzig, the four, Iowa State. It should be a fun game. Iowa State, three-and-a-half-point favorite. Do they win and cover? I don't know, Brad. I don't know that they even win this game. And now Jefferson, between now, amen, actually, was playing there. So, I mean, I think he's further along, even though he's been playing a herd. Jefferson, we still don't know about his status.

I mean, he's riding one of those carts with his ankle, and you don't sprain an ankle and come back the next week, generally. And, of course, 100%, he may play. I think Iowa State, we thought before Sunday that even without Jefferson, Iowa State could beat Kentucky. I don't know if that's the case against Tennessee. Tennessee's defense, you know, it's a tick down from some of those recent Rick Barnes additions. But they're still darn good. And, you know, they will get in the way of Iowa State shooters.

Iowa State has a lot of ways they can get you. And Lipsy, this is another experience here. He's been, what, three, four-year starter in the backcourt for Iowa State. But I don't think he's going to have that easy a time running this offense. Gillespie is really good, too, for Tennessee. They've got a, and if they met his, you know, close to 100% this week, there's a couple guys you've got his go-to scores. I mean, the Tennessee pattern, probably win here, then they lose in the Elite Eight, because they never get past that.

But they have won some sweet 16s before. This is one upset that I think might happen. And it would, you know, the Jefferson situation, not only does he have to play, I think, this time for Iowa State, but he's got to be close to 100% because he would be the difference. And if he's not there, big advantage for Tennessee. I think the Vols have a shot here. Let me ask you real quick in about 90 seconds, Arkansas, Arizona, we know how good the Hogs are, and certainly Arizona wins here.

I think Arizona wins because this is the team that I look at, and I just don't see any flaws. And all these freshmen that Tommy Lloyd played, I mean, right from the start, they hit on all cylinders immediately. And you look, you know, at them, and they just don't have any flaws. So I think they win. Do they cover the spread? Arkansas is a little scary here, and this sort of reminds me a couple years ago when Moss was there, and they beat Houston in the 3-16.

They've hit their stride here. And, you know, with Acuff, anything can happen. I mean, he can just take over a game in the league, Thomas, and Brazil. I mean, you've got those two guards that are just so explosive. So I think Arizona wins. I'm not sure about covering the points spread here, though, because of Acuff. And they have a puncher's chance, too. This will be kind of a fun one to watch. But right now, I think Arizona's probably the best team in the country, I think.

So I think they advance it, maybe not easily. Well, I agree with you. Two things. One, you're still the gold standard once again. Where can we get online to get all the great stuff? If there is one, there are so many good ones. What's your under-the-radar game? Under-the-radar? I'll give you one tonight. In the NIT, Wichita State against Tulsa. They're playing for the fourth time this year. Wow. Because they're in the American Wichita State's one, two, three. I think Wichita wins this game in Tulsa tonight.

I'm not sure if Tulsa's top scorer, David Green, is going to play. He's had a shoulder injury. Wichita's going to make it the final four in Indianapolis. So that's a special for tonight. Anyway, for my stuff, check me out online. And it's all up there now at Gold Sheet. That's my place now. You go to wagertalk.com and then hit the goldsheet.com icon in there. Hey, we're putting up even some baseball season win totals. Can you believe that baseball starts like later this week? That's right.

[52:43] Check me out. My place now is at, it's a gold sheet, but that's also on wagertalk.com. Home, sweet home. Bruce, it's always good to catch you. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of the dance and everything else. Okay, buddy. Thank you, boys. Thank you, bud. Marshall again, the gold sheet. Speaking of baseball, the aforementioned Weathers family, David Weathers, yesterday was probably there in Louisville for his daughter Carly's game. Well, tomorrow night, his team, now the Yankees, his son Ryan and the Yankees will open the MLB season out in San Francisco.

And, of course, Papa David on the show with us tomorrow. But first, coming up, Matt Merchelle is going to join us. Joe Cox is going to be talking about the SEC gang and Ben Thomas. He's got everything else covered. It's all straight ahead. Stay with us. Hello, folks. Mark Humphrey, new car sales manager at Ray Miller GMC, where we treat you like family. We understand that buying an automobile is the second largest purchase you'll do in your lifetime. And just like all the Alabama athletic programs, we take pride in what we do.

So, if you're looking for a new or pre-owned automobile, we have you covered. Also, don't forget to schedule your next oil change or any of your mechanical issues with our award-winning service and parts department. So, remember, folks, we're at 246 Cox Creek Parkway, Florence, Alabama, right underneath that big and mega flag. We hope to see you real soon. Good call or bad call, officials always have the final say in sports. And at Alpha Insurance, we know it's important for you to have the final say on the insurance plan we build for you.

You'll have peace of mind knowing that we will work hard to get you the lowest rates and best discounts available. Alpha Insurance, always a good call. In the Shoals area, call David Jordan at 256-978-6732 or stop by his office at 103 West 6th Street in Tuscumbia or call Mike Mitchell at 256-3830-678 or stop by his office at 211 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals. Did you hear? Allstate car insurance now costs even less. So when you bundle with home, you can save even more. Check Allstate first to bundle and save with a new lower auto rate.

You're in good hands with Allstate. Not available in every state. Only applicable for new auto insurance business. Rates will vary by several factors, including how you purchase the policy. Potential savings may vary. Allstate North American Insurance Company and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Indeed presents, hires you can't afford to get wrong. Like a staff accountant at the height of tax season. Congrats. Looks like the company owes, huh, 50 bucks in taxes. How about that? Uh, that seems low. Why only 50? Why do you care so much? It's not your money.

This is a job for sponsored jobs. This is what happens when you don't sponsor your job on Indeed. Next time, get matched with quality candidates with Indeed sponsored jobs. Visit Indeed.com slash hire now and sponsor your job today. I'm Boomer Esiason. My mom died from cancer. She was only 37 years old. She didn't have life insurance, and that was devastating for my family. That's why having life insurance is so important to me. Ethos makes it fast and easy. Get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes, and get same-day coverage.

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A group of Alabama midwives and directors of birth centers are now asking for the Alabama Supreme Court to review a decision that was made at the start of this year by the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. That ruling would allow for the Alabama Department of Public Health to require for birth centers to obtain a hospital license before they can operate. Dr. Yoshika Robinson is the founder of the Alabama Birth Center. Robinson says that being able to have pregnancy care in a community makes a world of difference for those who are low income or are in rural communities.

Joe Crawford is at the Oasis Family Birthing Center and says that midwife-led pregnancies greatly helps a birthing mother. There are multiple plaintiffs who have signed on to this request for review, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama. I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this. Did you know that 70% of people experience a potentially traumatic event in their lifetime and that 6 out of every 100 adults face PTSD every day? Help us bring hope to these survivors by signing up for your Alabama Distinctive PTSD Awareness License plate today.

[58:11] The great thing is you can sign up no matter when your current plate renews and the first year is complimentary. All you need is your VIN number on hand. Drive awareness. Drive hope. And customize your plate today at at ease.org. The City Council of Fairhope has passed an ordinance that allows for the sale of consumable hemp products within that city. The state of Alabama passed a ban last year on the sale of smokable hemp products, but it did allow for city ordinances to make decisions regarding the consumable hemp products.

And over in the city of Auburn, a similar ordinance was approved last week with an 8-1 vote. The ordinance requires that retailers first obtain a license from the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to comply with state law, and also any store selling the hemp products must be 250 feet away from a school. For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com. And while you're there, subscribe to the daily newsletter. Valley Broadcasting Corporation, WITK-FM, Rogersville, Athens, Decatur, The Shores, Sports Radio 93.9, The Score. Live and advance. Alabama advances.

Win or go home. For three again. Hits it again. Oh, mercy. It's the Sweet 16. Tip. No good. And let's get out of here. Join us Friday. The Crimson Tide. The Wolverines. Live from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Our coverage begins at 5.30 on your home for Alabama basketball. The Crimson Tide Sports Network from Learfield. Brought to you locally in part by The Law Firm of Johnson, Pasher, Medley & Birchall. Page Board & Insurance and M.J. Carter & Company Insurance. J.C. Hamm & Sons. Lost Pizza. First Metro Bank.

Alabama Health Guidance. Story & Lee Furniture. Valley Credit Union. Cypress Creek Indoor Range. Ray Miller GMC. Hittaker Johnson & Layton Insurance. And Mugshots Grill & Bar. Alabama and Michigan in the Sweet 16. This Friday afternoon at 5.30 on 93.9 The Score. 93.9 The Score weather. Today partly sunny with a high around 70. Tonight mostly cloudy with a low near 50. Tomorrow mostly sunny with a high around 75. Tomorrow night mostly clear with a low near 60. And if you're Thursday sunny with a high around 85. Your weather from 93.9 The Score. Now, get ready to roll, Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee.

It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice. Woo! The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tide. Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg, on 93.9 The Score. Hey, welcome back to the Boomo Bugg Show. Brett Beaird and Harold Bugg will be joining us in just a few minutes. We've been talking a lot of Sweet 16, but let's talk some high school basketball and some recipients of the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame being inducted in the last week.

Delighted to bring in good friend Ben Thomas, who covers high school sports in Alabama for AL.com and does an amazing job. BT, welcome into the show today, buddy. How are you doing? I'm doing good, BB. How are you? Where's Harold? Out getting a sandwich or something? Decided to be late from work? No, I was trying to get that green stuff off my car. I'm moving to South Alabama. Is everything green in South Alabama like it is up here? I mean, everywhere we look, Ben, it's green.

Can we move to South Alabama? Do you have the same problem we do? Well, we have some of that, but it's nice down here right now. Now, the problem is it might be 30 degrees tomorrow and it might be over the next day. But for Tuesday, March 24th, it's nice. You know, Ben, everybody says, gee whiz, it's the time of year when you kick back and you relax. It's not football season. What about baseball, softball, soccer, track and field, laundry, and mowing the grass? This is really and truly for you guys, probably the business time of the year is it not.

Well, it is. Yeah, I mean, you got more sports going on. You know, we're still trying to button up basketball. I mean, games have all been played, but we still have a big banquet to host in a couple of weeks in Montgomery. So, we're working on that. Obviously, there's always football coaching news. I mean, we saw that last week with Lance Reese stepping down at Gunnersville. Brent Hubbard, Hall of Fame coach, going back to Maplesville where he won multiple state titles as a head coach. So, always stuff going on in football as well.

[1:03:13] But, yeah, it's not a slow time, that's for sure. Let me ask you about basketball. You are doing, once again, and we discussed this with you in the fall, the People's Choice Awards for the Alabama Girls Basketball and the Boys Player of the Year. And, as you mentioned, those will be unveiled at the banquet you've got coming up. And, looking at the girls, BT, it is amazing how many are from North Alabama. And, we've talked about these young ladies extensively during the course of the season.

I don't know how many times Harold and I have talked about Belle Hill and Mars Hill. 33 points a game, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and she's a sophomore. It is just, you know, 33, I believe now, over 3,200 points in her career. Reese Davis at Dantzler, of course, plays for Coach Killing. She's going to Ole Miss. That's the other thing I've noticed that's kind of become a denominator for a lot of the young ladies, is they're going to power for schools as a commitment or a signee, and a lot of them are so young.

Jacaya Smith from Bob Jones, she's going to Tulane. Kristen Johnson from Hazel Green, she's going to Florida A&M. Lanny Smallwood of Albert Bowl is the Gatorade Player of the Year. Wow, when she scored 25 points and 8 rebounds a game, she's going to Mississippi State. Sawyer Kate Hoggan from Plainview, and we've discussed her. She broke the National Federation of High School record for career three-point baskets. That's amazing. And Kennedy Bowie from Guntersville is an 8th grader. Oh, my goodness. The Class 5A state MVP, and then Izzy Nelson of Scottsboro, BT, it is just amazing how talented a lot of these guys are.

It really is. Yeah, so our Player of the Year voting, that's our ale.com thing. We'll actually announce that on ale.com prior to the banquet. That's not a banquet thing. But, yeah, I think we started that on Sunday, if I'm not mistaken. I think it was Sunday. I'm losing track of my days here. And so the first round, so what we do is we've done this really, this is our second year of doing it. We do it for football, basketball, baseball, and softball, and we've had fun with it.

We try to narrow it down to 16 top players statewide, which is hard enough to do, guys, especially in basketball, to narrow it down to 16. And then we speed them the best we can, one through 16. And then we let the fans vote it off round by round until we get to the eventual champion. And it is, you know, like you mentioned, Brett Theroux, we've got a lot of talented boys, too, obviously. And some very young men, some very young boys on that side, we can talk about that.

On the girls' side, you mentioned a lot of those seniors who are going on to college. Lanny Smallwood, obviously, the star, the big girl from Hoover, Chloe Ford, who's going to Missouri, I believe. So there are some talented seniors, but there's a lot of talented young players. I mean, Bell Hill is already one player of the year, I think, three times in her class. So she's going to keep being up for player of the year, I'm sure, as long as she plays in Alabama. You mentioned Kennedy Booey is only an eighth grader from Guntersville.

Serenity Rutledge, who scored, what, I think 42 or something like that in one of the championship games from Moody is only a sophomore. So Reese Davis is a junior. So there's a lot of young players. We lose some good ones, some good seniors this year, girls I'm talking about. But we have a lot of young players to carry the torch. And you thought Reese Davis could only host ESPN's game day from the shows. Ben Thomas, look it up with us from AL.com. Ben, let's talk about some Hall of Fame names.

I see the list. There's two missing. I don't see Ben Thomas or Brett Beaird. So where are they going to complete this list here, Ben? Well, Brett should be on at any time now. I don't think that's the only Ben Thomas that needs to be in the Hall of Fame is the one that played defensive line for Auburn back in the 1980s. If you remember that, you guys, Harold, you probably are old enough to remember that. I don't know about Brett. I'm old enough to do a lot of things, Ben.

But, yeah, they announced this class. I'm actually on the, I'm lucky enough to be on the Hall of Fame committee and voted on this in the fall. And so last night they inducted these 12 new people into the Hall of Fame. Very good list, as always. I mean, it's tough. Usually when we're in, I've been on that committee five or six years, and almost always there's about 60 names that we try and cut down to no more than 12, which is a terribly hard job. But, you know, you've got all sorts.

[1:08:22] I mean, you think about it. Now, it doesn't include players. It's just basically coaches and officials and administrators. So I've always thought, man, how can we start a Hall of Fame that includes former players in the state? And where would we start there? We've actually done some stories on that about who would be in the first class if we inducted players. But if you just look at that list, I mean, you can't go over all the names, but Jeff Smith, the former Walter Welburn football coach, Larry Strain, won state championships at Hanley, and, of course, in girls basketball, Ricky Austin, father of eighth Austin, who won a bunch of championships at Spring Garden.

So a lot of big names, Kim Keel, from the administrator and coach's perspective, probably known most for her time at Pelham. Now she's the vice president of the Central Board of Control. So a lot of good folks getting recognized last night in Montgomery. BT, Greg Patterson, the former head football coach at Huntsville, is a good friend of mine, and I know he has a lot to do with this. If someone would like to nominate an administrator, coach, whatever, for the Alabama Husky Sports Hall of Fame, how do they go about doing that?

I think they can go just on the HSA website and find it or shoot a message to Heath Harmon and he can lead the way. I would say Ron Ingram, but Ron's kind of in and out. I mean, he's technically retired, but they keep pulling him back in because they haven't filled his role yet. But, yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, the spring and the summer is the time to do that, really, because, like I said, normally we vote in, I think, in November sometime is when we usually come together to vote.

So be thinking about that if you've got somebody. H***, you know, you can shoot me a message, bthomas.al.com, and I'll find out for you how to nominate somebody. But it's just like the Bryant-Jordan, which we talked about, I think, last week, and they're going to announce the overall winners for that on April 13th. It's such a worthy cause, and so many people who deserve recognition getting honored. Absolutely, and you also had the People's Choice for the Alabama boys, Jalen Alexander of Oxford, Milton Jones of Fairfield, Braden Gordon of Montgomery Academy, and then Evan Toms of Huntsville.

Speaking of the Huntsville Crimson Panthers, BT, what else is going on? As Harold mentioned, there's just nothing going on this time of the year. Soccer, baseball, softball, wrapping up basketball, spring football will probably start here in another month. What else is going on? Do we need anything else, Brett? I mean, that's what you just mentioned. That may be enough, bud. Yeah, but I guess, you know, we don't want it the other way around. If nothing was going on, it would probably be, you know, working at McDonald's or somewhere.

So, no offense to any McDonald's employees. I love the Big Mac. Right. But, yeah, so we got, like I said, the player of the year thing will be going on for the next couple of weeks on AL.com. So, the voting for this first round ends Friday. Then we'll start the quarterfinals on Saturday. Not to be confused with the Alabama Sports Writers Association team, which we announce on Saturday. And then tomorrow morning, we will announce the finalists for player of the year in each classification. And those folks will be honored April 14th at the Mr. Miss Basketball Banquet in Montgomery.

So, that's coming up tomorrow. Randy Kennedy is back on the job on Thursday for another Best in Bama recruiting watch. I think he's looking at wide receivers this week. So, be in tune for that. And, of course, we've got the spring roundup. The next baseball softball rankings will be released on Thursday. So, plenty to look at. You can find all that stuff on AL.com. Just go to the high school sports page. And if you are not yet a subscriber to our newsletter in North Alabama, maybe you'd like to join that.

And if you are, I appreciate it. I appreciate you subscribing. But we think that's a really neat feature that we do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Man, I'm sorry, man. Listen, man, it's always good to hook up with you. Thanks so much for your time today. And stay safe down there, okay? Okay. You guys have a good week. You too, bud. BT, Ben Thomas, take it over with us from mail.com. The latest, what, started out with 10. Now down to four teams still dancing. Joe Cox on that.

And maybe a little baseball from the SEC as well. Let's all straight ahead. Stay with us. It's not March Madness. It's Mad Marchness at Sam's Portugale in Florence. Every game, every bracket buster, every unbelievable buzzer beater, all on wall-to-wall TVs. Fuel your picks with quality food, ice-cooled drinks, and game day energy that hits harder than a full-court press. From crave-worthy favorites to unbeatable drink specials, Sam's is where Florence comes to watch, cheer, and win. So grab your crew, lock in your bracket, and experience Mad Marchness the Sam's way.

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Terms and conditions apply at SoFi.com slash offense. NMLS 696891. Adam Schefter here. It's tournament time when only the most talented teams survive in advance. And whether you're cutting down the nets or cutting through resumes, one thing's clear. The best teams are built with the best people. If you're hiring, you need ZipRecruiter. Their smart matching technology finds qualified candidates fast. You can add screening questions to get the right applicants and even filter to see who's recently active. Score the best for your team with ZipRecruiter. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash sports.

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And you can tell it, and I tell our guys all the time, just be about the right stuff, lose yourself in the game, and the other stuff takes care of itself. So you kind of go down the list and, you know, Houston wins the hard hat tonight. And in limited minutes, Noah was right there. Noah had nine. Trelly had 13. They were, you know, some of our leaders. You look at the three of these guys, what they shot from three. I mean, Trelly goes six of nine, Houston goes five for seven, and then Noah goes two for two.

And I think they just bought into being about the right stuff. So, you know, these guys hit 13 threes between, you know, the three of them go 13 of 18. When you just lose yourself in a game. I'll have more in a moment. Hey, Bama fans, each Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. Central, join us live for Crimson Drive, driven by NASCAR. This live streaming talk show features the latest on Alabama athletics with exclusive conversations with Tide student-athletes, coaches, and media members giving their perspective on the Crimson Tide.

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[1:18:46] It is a pleasure for us to open the door and say hello to Joe Cox. He's got it all covered there. His columnist for Saturday down south, and his book is called A Fine Team Man. Joe, welcome in. How are you? Yeah. Can't complain, gentlemen. You know, staying healthy, staying relatively warm and comfortable, and, you know, just enjoying it all. Hey, if you're on the right side of the grass, it's all gravy, right, Joe? Listen, 10 teams start to dance in the SEC. Four remain, two A-teams, two T-teams, Alabama-Arkansas, Texas-Tennessee.

Joe, your impressions of the dance so far relative to our SEC neighbors? Well, obviously, the big story SEC-wise has got to be Florida taking the second-round loss. You know, unexpected. I think they tried to give us a clue in the SEC tournament game with Vanderbilt that they were maybe a little more vulnerable than coming into that, but still a surprise. Hopefully, a humbling experience for Todd Golden. You know, you definitely get a different perspective when you are the head that wears the crown. It's a little harder, and I'm sure, for instance, your Alabama football folk could say, yeah, it hits a little different, doesn't it?

Yeah. Florida found that out, but, you know, in theory, we could have an SEC half of the bracket in the Elite Eight, but the reality is we may well have none of the SEC around for the Elite Eight. So, we shall see. Joe, not happy. Otega Owe had a half-miracle shot to send the game into overtime, which Kentucky won. The round of 32 was not very kind. I was watching the end of the first half. Kentucky had a lead of 30-23, I believe, over Iowa State. Kentucky then proceeds to turn the ball over four consecutive trips.

Iowa State comes back to lead 31-30, and it was all downhill from there. In fact, Kentucky, I believe, Joe, finished with 20-20 turnovers. Wow. Joe, talk about Big Blue Nation being blue this week. Well, it was certainly a discouraging performance, and, you know, I think it's a situation where nobody was particularly shocked to see the second-round loss. I would state the good team. But the way that they lost it, as you say, you know, had a 12-point lead early in the game, kind of came out, and everything is going right.

And as you know, you know, to me, the danger zone was when you limp into the locker room down a point, and you say, okay, they shot 29% in the first half, and we're down a point. They're not going to shoot 29% in two halves. And they certainly did not. And, you know, the thing about this year, it's really less about the results than just about the feeling around the program. I mean, a year ago, they won one more game, and I think people were pretty happy with that because even where they failed, it seemed like there was a plan.

It seemed like maybe you don't have all the pieces yet, but you know what you're doing. This year, I'm not sure Mark Pope, frankly, knows what he's doing. I'm not sure that there is a plan. The plan seemed to be throw around a bunch of money, and we'll put some guys out there. And, boy, that just did not work very well at all. If year three doesn't look a lot more like year one than year two, there won't be a year four. Joe, to a point, a guy named Charlie Barkley, he's a guy on TV that's not shy.

Did you see his comments to kind of your point there? He's talking about these kids down on the panel. He says, you can't talk to these kids. You can't yell at them. You can't whoop their A. I'll let that go at that. And then he came back, and he said, well, I think some of the pushback was, well, you can't paddle your kids. He said, yeah, I can't. He said, if you don't like it, you can kiss this. According to Charlie, the old way was pretty effective as opposed to the new way of maybe corralling in it.

The word is the B word. It's boundaries. When you take the Mark Pope approach, he's not the only one. A lot of these guys, they're afraid to say anything because they're afraid they'll leave. And then you've got the guy at Iowa who says, leave. I don't care. We'll get somebody here who does want to play in this system. Your thoughts just about the modern athlete and the challenge for these coaches. You know, it is a tough situation for a lot of older coaches because it was a very different world.

And the unfortunate and complicated truth is we do lose some things by not having coaches who have the ability and the candor to say that's unacceptable and perhaps even use a few dirty words in saying it. You know, the hard love sometimes is the best love. Now, have some coaches gone overboard with that and done things that we can't do in the year 2026 most definitely? And I understand all that. So it's not a simple cut and dried thing. We can't just say the old way was always right.

[1:23:57] But we also can't say the old way was always wrong either because for a lot of young men, it built character, it built an understanding that they seem to be missing under some of the new ways. So I don't think there's a simple answer, but I think there's still room for some tough love from some smart coaches. Joe, Nate Owens in Alabama put it all together against Texas Tech, played, I thought, the most complete game they played all year and ran the Red Raiders, added the gym in Tampa.

The defensive intensity, rebounding, it just all came together. And of course, obviously, the threes, different animal in Michigan Friday night at 630. Again, Michigan a 10-and-a-point favorite. Everybody understands why. Your thoughts on Bama in the tournament so far, Joe, and what can they do to upset Michigan? You know, they've played really well. I think particularly with the Holloway stuff coming down when it did, this is about as well as it would have been possible to play it. Now, the bad news is, yeah, you get possibly as bad of a matchup as you could get here.

I mean, this is just not a team that matches up really well for Alabama just because of the size, because of the physicality. Now, the good news is your game plan here is pretty simple. Don't get absolutely killed on the glass. You're probably not going to win on the glass, but don't get absolutely, you know, doubled up or something like that. And then hit those threes. Start shooting those threes. Start hitting those threes. And as we've seen before, you know, the beauty of that system is they've got the guys to do it.

If you can create the space and you can get a couple of them to go down, maybe you can get in Michigan's head a little bit. And they haven't been challenged a whole lot. And maybe this is the avenue. If you can hang around, if you can hit enough threes, and again, don't get eaten alive inside. If you get them the last few minutes, you might just exploit their lack of big game experience. As we mentioned, four teams remain for the SEC. Joe, how many of those make it to the Elite Eight and beyond from the league?

You know, I'm going to say one just because I think somebody's going to spring this upset. But the kicker is I'm not really 1,000% ready to jump on the bandwagon for any of them. I think Arkansas might find itself in the situation that would be most tenable. But they're all underdogs, and there's good reasons they're all underdogs. They're all playing really good teams. Of course, you can't sleep on Texas. I mean, Texas seems to have suddenly found itself. And of those four teams, Purdue might be the most vulnerable of the four.

So, you know, my head would say maybe Arkansas, maybe Alabama. But my gut says watch Texas end up being the one that survives and advances. Joe, what about Tennessee and Iowa State? The last game of the Sweet 16-9-10 special on TBS and True TV. Tennessee beats Virginia 79-72. Nate Amen obviously is not playing his A game because he's hurt. But Tennessee's physical. Jacoby Gillespie can shoot the basketball. Rick Barnes, you know they can play defense. Can Tennessee get to another Elite Eight? You know, I think you hit the key right there early.

Amen has really got to be big. Kentucky really got chewed up by the Iowa State defense because they never had more than one competent ball handler out there. If Tennessee can handle that pressure, and they have personnel that gives you reason to say, I think they can do that. Yeah, I think they're a much better matchup with Iowa State than Kentucky was. Now, the question for me with Iowa State is, are they going to get Jefferson back? Because he didn't even play, and he's probably their best player.

So, they've been really, really good without him. If he's back, goodness. I mean, you're kind of in Alabama land then of just saying, let's go unconscious from the outside and see how far it carries us. And that's maybe where they're at. But boy, amen. If you could pick one guy and say, let's give him a big boost of confidence and just get him playing well, and that might change things, he's the one. I always look forward to your, I believe, Thursday or Friday rankings on Saturday down south for SEC baseball.

Alabama may be the surprise of the season so far in not winning the series, sweeping the series, and throwing the first no-hitter in nine innings since 1942. Harold and I were not around for that, Joe, by the way. It was the next year. The next year. Then Texas wins the series over Auburn. I'm guessing that will be reflected in your updated rankings, but where can we find that and all the other good stuff on SDS? It'll be right there, Saturday down south. Yeah, the funny thing is with 14 teams that are between 4-2 and 2-4 right now, you can print out my column, tear it up, throw it in the air, and put it back together in the order it comes down, and it's probably about as good as my column was.

[1:29:21] We're going to read it either way. Listen, Joe, man, it's always good to hook up with you. Thank you so much. Enjoy some March Madness and some baseball, and stay away from the pollen out there, okay? That sounds like a game plan. You guys take care. You too, Joe. Joe Cox, Saturday down south. Coming up, hard to believe, spring training coming to a close. What else is going on in the heart of Florida? We'll find out with Matt Merchel next. Stay with us. Their reputation for winning is expanding faster than the economy.

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Jaguars are 17-18. Purdue Fort Wayne is 20-13. Alabama men's basketball team will play on Friday evening. In Chicago, we'll take on Michigan in the Sweet 16. The Tide is 25-9. Michigan is 33-3. The Auburn Tigers are back in action tomorrow night in the NIT as Auburn takes on Nevada at home. Auburn enters the matchup 19-16. Bundle auto and home, renters or condo, and save with Progressive. I'm John Thayer with the Sports Flash presented by Progressive on 93.9. The score. I checked Allstate first and saved hundreds on my car insurance.

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[1:34:32] With that juicy Chick-fil-A chicken on a buttermilk ranch bun, jalapeno ranch sauce, and pickled jalapenos. It's a little ranch with a lot of kick. I want to let my boots down, let the boot times roll at the ranch. The new Chick-fil-A Jalapeno Ranch Club with original spicy or grilled filet. Available for a limited time only. Order ahead on the Chick-fil-A app. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. Looking back in town. Matt Murcio, college insider with the Orlando Sinel. His podcast called Gridiron 365.

Matt, welcome in. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing today? Hey, man. We're doing all right. We mentioned welcome back. You're coming in from up yonder. Did any of that city of brotherly love rub off on you up in Federal Deputy, Matt? Yeah, you know, it was a short trip up there. You know, believe me, it would have been nice to go a little longer. But the first couple days, it was great to feel kind of the dynamic that Billy put out there for the NCAA tournament.

And it was great to see some good basketball over a few days as well. So, it all worked out. You know, for the folks who are regulars, they know you cover UCF, Central Florida, and a guy named Johnny Dawkins. The interesting story there is a great back story. Played back in the day with the Sixers, but not at that arena, as I understand. It had to be an emotional trip for Johnny Dawkins back to Philly. Yeah, it was. You know, I mean, here's a guy who had had five years of his playing career with the Philadelphia 76ers.

He talked about how it was one of his special places to go to. One of his favorite places that he lived, you know, had played in the old spectrum, which is no longer there. It was actually out in the parking lot of the new Xfinity Mobile Arena. You know, that's where the spectrum was. We talked a little bit about it. Johnny and I talked a little bit about it after a while. And, you know, it's a good time there. And I think it was exciting for him to be back in town, exciting for him to bring a team there, you know, to be back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018 and 19.

And, you know, sometimes it's, you know, it's amazing what a trip to the NCAA tournament can kind of do for your program. It's an opportunity, possibly, to build off that, you know, to build off the excitement and get fans excited and get even, you know, transfers and free agent acquisitions excited about the idea you've been there. So it'll be interesting if they can capitalize off that over the next few years. The three of us have been blessed to cover national championship football games, tournament basketball games.

Matt, tell our listeners the difference between covering a national championship football or playoff game and covering an NCAA basketball game. Well, I think for an NCAA basketball game, what we kind of, you kind of forget is that it's multiple teams. You know, you've got more than two teams. You've got a bunch of teams there. So you've got different fan bases. You know, you have different levels of excitement, different coaches. You know, during Thursday's media availability, you know, leading up to Friday's game, you know, you get an opportunity to talk to a lot of players, a lot of coaches to see kind of where things are at.

It's a little different than, like, let's say, a playoff game or national championship where, you know, you've got two teams and you're kind of looking at it. Plus, with football, you know, there's so many players and so many storylines and bases that will make impact and coaches and things like that. When you get to the basketball level, it's a little different. You've only got about 15, 16 players. You know, the coaches, you're pretty well familiar with the coaches and what their idea is. And this is that do-or-die situation where, you know, there's a lot of pressure built up on a lot of these teams to try to have success.

For some of them, they haven't been there before. For others, they've been there a lot. You know, you look at UCLA, for instance, in Philadelphia. So I think the difference is it's just almost like a more pressure, bigger pressure cooker, I would say, you know, feeling when you're talking about NCAA tournament games than, let's say, a playoff game or a national championship. But national championships are amazing, especially in football. They have a great atmosphere and something you can't replicate. But both these two events are just so special.

I think that it's something that, as a media member, I never take for granted that I'm able to go attend them. To be word blessed to be able to do that. Man, Michelle, with us, visit there with the Orlando City. Let's talk about some of the guys that's involved with that. And that's John Calipari. What's going through the minds of Kentucky basketball fans right now? And what value can you put on it that Arkansas is there under an old-season vet? He's been there, done that, with his shoes on.

It's about the A-teams, Arkansas and Arizona, arguably the one of the, if not the top team right now in most people's minds, certainly one of the top two or three in Arizona. Yeah, I think, you know, for John Calipari, listen, this validates a little bit of his belief on leaving the Ducky. You know what I mean? There were a lot of people who thought, well, you know, he's going to regret this, he's going to go out to Arkansas, chase the money, and, you know, he's not going to regret it, he's not going to have, you know, the success.

[1:39:42] Well, look at him now, you know what I mean? Now you're in the Sweet 16, you know, you're playing, you know, you're advanced on, you're playing, you know, in some of these games, and you get an opportunity to do something you can't do. And it's going to be a big challenge. I mean, listen, I think the majority of people out there probably think Arizona's the team to beat in this bracket. And so, you know, you're going to face a tough team, a team that's going to try to, you know, put up a lot of points, run up and down, a team that's got a lot of sides.

So it's a good challenge for Arkansas, it's a good challenge for Calipari. And if anyone knows, you know, what it takes to win at this particular level, I think it's Calipari. So it's going to be interesting to see if he can find a way to pull off another, you know, a magical run and get his Arkansas team further along. Man, I think a lot of Florida fans thought or taken for granted that there would be five SEC teams advancing to the Sweet 16. The Florida Gators did not advance to the Sweet 16.

I didn't think their guard play this year was as good as last year with Walter Clayton Jr. and friends, but Iowa gets off to lead. Florida comes back to their credit, but did not execute him, particularly in the last few minutes of that game. Tough loss for Florida fans. Yeah, really tough loss. I think a lot of Florida fans were kind of surprised. You know, they felt the least this team could get to the Sweet 16, maybe the Elite Eight, you know what I mean, and have a chance to maybe kind of defend its national championship.

But I agree with you. I just don't think the guard play was nearly as good as it was last year. You know, they had some issues, especially late in the game against Iowa. You know, I mean, give Iowa credit. They did the things they needed to do to knock off Florida. So, you know, this is something that Todd Golden is going to have to kind of, you know, learn from this. You know what I mean? Come out and say, okay, expectations were extremely high for this program.

You know, what's going to happen next time we're at that spot? You know, because, you know, you want to be able to continue to have that, you know, to have that success. Now, the biggest question this offseason is, does Todd Golden stick around? I mean, you know, there's a lot of, there's going to be a lot of buzz surrounding him as a possible candidate for several big jobs out there. And so it's going to be kind of imperative to see where he'll end up, if he stays up for it, if he ends up going somewhere else.

Because for the Gators, they would love to have him around because they really do think he's done an amazing job over the last few years. So I think that's going to be the challenge this offseason. Is there enough to keep him around? And if so, you know, what, you know, how does that lead up for next year for the challenge of building up another team again that can make him run like a game? You know, Matt, along that line, just in case, obviously we're not sitting here pushing anybody out, but there's a lot of talk that maybe there'll be an opening at Kansas, maybe at North Carolina.

We know they've got the brand when it comes to basketball. How much mutual interest would there be there with Golden? Well, you know, I'm not sure. I mean, Todd's been trying to keep things very close to the best, but I'm sure he doesn't want to do it. I mean, I think the Kansas job is interesting. You know, if Bill Self decided stuff away, I think Kansas would come out of a heart. I think the same for North Carolina. I mean, it's hard to say if you're up top, let's say, 10 program and you are, you know, you were looking for a new coach, you know, why wouldn't you try to go after a high school?

That's right. Make a phone call anyway. You know, make a phone call. Yeah, make a phone call. What can we do? Especially if you're a basketball school. Kansas is a basketball school. North Carolina is a basketball school. Those are schools that are going to dedicate a tremendous amount of resources to basketball programs. And I think if you're in Todd Goal and you're looking around and saying, okay, you know, I know I'm in an SEC school. I know I'm out of school at Florida, which is one, national championships in basketball.

But, you know, is there something that's maybe attractive to me? You know, is there something that I feel like I could take and try to find and maybe do success elsewhere? And I know I think that's the thing that's going to have to be answered. Do you feel like you've done enough at Florida? Do you feel like it's a, you know, do you want to chase the money? Do you want to chase the idea of trying to win a title somewhere else? And I think that's going to be hard for him.

I would think Florida, no matter what other school Auburn comes out of him, I think Florida is going to be just as competitive. Now, you know, is it enough to keep him there? It just remains to be seen. But we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks because I know there are going to be some openings that are going to come open. And that will kind of determine maybe what he's going to end up doing. Man, four SEC teams. Texas, who won three games last week.

Congratulations, Sean Miller and Longhorns. Against Purdue, Arkansas, Arizona, we mentioned. Michigan, Alabama, and Chicago. Tennessee, Iowa State. How many of those four can advance to the Elite Eight? Well, that's a good question. You know, I mean, Texas has had a pretty miraculous run, and I'm not making anything away from them. I mean, you know, but 11th seed, if they were to somehow knock off Purdue and get to the Elite Eight, you know, I think it would be a pretty amazing run for them to be where they're at.

[1:44:45] I think Purdue plays really well. Alabama's got a good shot at Michigan. You know, there's nothing to say you can, you know, the same for, you know, Tennessee and Iowa State. You know, Tennessee plays well. You know, they've got an opportunity. Iowa State has played really well, you know, going along those lines, too. And then, you know, you look at Arkansas and Arizona, as we mentioned before, is that strong enough? You know, can Arkansas, you know, find a way to knock off probably the top seed of all?

So, it's going to be a challenge. So, maybe one or two of those. But, I mean, with the NCAA tournament, it's so hard to gauge, you know, what team comes in and can surprise someone. You know, we look at Iowa with Florida we just talked about. You know, sometimes it can just come down to a team not playing well, and, you know, all of a sudden you get hot and you never know what's going to happen. So, I think, you know, that's where you've got to have an interesting run to see, you know, let's see what happens with some of these teams.

Because I think that there's going to be at least another upset or two somewhere down the road here. How about a team kind of close to us, Alabama taking on the, in some ways, the Goliath of the tourney, Michigan. What's going to happen with Alabama and Michigan? Can they pull off the upset, they being Alabama? Well, I think Alabama's got to be playing well right now. We talked about this last week, I think, you know, how well are you going to start at playing well? It looks like Alabama's playing as well, nearly as well as anyone, maybe outside of Arkansas.

It's going to be a challenge. Michigan likes to run the, you know, Michigan's going to play a score of points. You know, they won their first two games by over 20 points, you know what I mean? And so is Alabama, by the way. So these are two offensive journalists that are going to get facing each other right now. I think, you know, if you're Alabama, the secret to success is, you know, you've got to continue to do what you've been doing the last few games. You can't get caught up in playing the number one team in the country.

You're the number one team in, you know, their bracket. They can't get caught up in the brand of Michigan. You'd think that wouldn't be the case at all, but, you know, I mean, they've got to find a way to put that aside. And they've got to play really good defense. You know, they've got to find a way to try to slow down Michigan. I mean, Michigan's, what, almost 10-point favorite in the game. They've got to find a way to slow down Michigan and make things kind of a challenge because I think that's really where, you know, if you just kind of fall in line with what they're going to do, you're not going to have much of a chance to win it.

So I think that's where the challenge goes. Isn't this an amazing time of the year, the Sweet 16 Thursday and Friday, Major League Baseball cranks up Wednesday through Friday, college football with spring, which has literally been in obscurity a little bit. Man, it's an incredible time of the year, isn't it? It really is. You know, I mean, I know from my end of, you know, UCF starts spring ball next week. It's a little late, you know what I mean? But they wanted to get a little later start with basketball teams doing what they were doing.

So, yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to be the next, you know, five, six weeks of catching up on football, you know, figuring out what some of the top storylines are. We've got, like you said, another couple weeks of the tournament. That's still going on. I mean, baseball's around the corner. You know, you've still got other, you know, other things are kind of going on here or there. But it's a fun time. It's one of those times where people always say, well, this is your down time.

I always laugh. Not really. I mean, it's usually the most busy time of the year. So we'll see when it's happening. But I'm looking forward to it, no matter what. Well, you do it very well, my friend. Listen, glad you got back from Philly. Enjoyed the trip. Where can we get online and get all the good stuff? You can go to orlandosetinal.com to check out the latest or follow me on social media at OS Matt Rochelle. Yeah, I'm just happy to get through all the TSA lines and get my way back here.

You get my way back here to Orlando. You've been on, what, 10 minutes now? It's been 10 minutes or is it 15 minutes you got back from this weekend? That's what it feels like. Yeah, exactly. It feels like it, right? Good to have you back, Matt. Thanks so much. Have a great week, okay? All right. Take care, guys. Matt Rochelle, hooking up on this mission there with the Orlando. So, B.B., your thoughts. Obviously, Alabama taking on the big boys from Michigan. To me, the pressure is on Michigan this game.

Alabama to get to the Sweet 16 with all the adversity that they've had. The fourth straight year. Two ways of looking at that. That's nice to get there. But at what point do you say we've got to move it to the next level, B.B.? Well, it's going to be a challenge, Harold. We've talked about it. We'll continue to talk about it and look at it throughout the week. Michigan, obviously, very good team. Alabama has already played in the United Center. They beat Illinois November the 19th.

So, they're used to that environment. At least they have been there before. And, again, Harold, they continue to play with the intensity. His team seemed to buy in to play defense in the postseason. And that's what they're doing now. And I agree with Joe Cox. They can't get beat up on the boards. They're not going to win the rebounding advantage. But they need to at least stay in there. But if they play with the intensity and passion they played with Sunday night, again, as Bruce Marshall said, they've got a puncher's chance to win that game.

[1:50:11] And watch the rumors of Nate Oates going to the other school. Oh, yeah. Really get rolling later in the week. That's my old coach used to say, I get you. I promise you that one. Quick reminder, if you want to go and see Alabama baseball without traveling around the world, they're playing over in Madison tonight, taking on Austin Peay over at Trash Panda Stadium. So, check that out. Alabama and Austin Peay on the diamonds. That's going to take care of business for now. On behalf of B.B., Greg, James Blair, and the entire crew here, Peril Bogg, thank you so much for your time today.

Let's do it again tomorrow on noon to two for the Boomhole Bug Show. Back here on Sports Radio, 93.9 score.