Boomo Bugg Show 031026
93.9 The Score WYTK - March 10, 2026
https://www.939thescore.com/boomo-bugg-show-031026/

This transcript was generated automatically from the broadcast audio. Names and some words may be misspelt; the audio is the official record.

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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 Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Good afternoon and welcome here 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 the question of the day is, who has the toughest and easiest schedule according to the so-called experts in the upcoming SEC football wars? Stay tuned. In the meantime, good afternoon again and how are you?
Happy Tuesday to you and the listeners. Five-star basketball prospect, Caleb Holt, who played two years at Buckhorn High School, chooses Arizona over Alabama about an hour ago.
Las Vegas insider Bruce Marshall will preview the SEC men's basketball tournament in Nashville and highlight special seasons for Troy and UAB.
Roger is here right now to recap a fun night in Coleman Coliseum Saturday night and preview women's basketball and baseball this week.
Roger is a wonder if he's packing the guitar picks, the fiddle and everything else, getting ready to make some string music in the music city of Nashville, home of the ACC basketball tournament.
When he's not busy there on the Alabama Crimson Tide Network.
Roger Hoover, welcome in. How are you?
Boomo Bugg. I'm doing really well.
Well, and I wish I was packing the guitar and heading to Nashville.
I am actually headed to the Bluegrass State this weekend for a little Alabama baseball.
So we'll be heading towards the land of bourbon and horses coming up over the weekend.
And hopefully I'll find a golf course along the way.
So you're going to have a tootsie-free weekend, right, Roger?
Well, I'm going to have a stopover for a victory lap on Sunday.
There you go. There you go.
Roger, obviously, you're a busy boy, as you just indicated there.
Let's start with the basketball.
Obviously, let's just kind of have some fun here and go back to post-Florida game.
Did anyone think at that time that we'd be having the conversation that we're having now?
The run that this team got on after the debacle against the Gators.
What a finish for this team in terms of building momentum, heading in, as they say, the money part of the season.
Yeah, they're really happy with the progress that's been made over the last few weeks.
And just learning how to defend better.
I think that Florida game just woke everybody up to, like, what does it take to play winning basketball at the most elite level of the SEC?
Florida exposed that.
And there's a real hunger from this team.
We talked about it with Latrell Reifel Jr.
We have an interview with him coming up in the next couple weeks on Crimson Drive, driven by NASCAR.
He just talked about, like, you know, that was the worst feeling of being embarrassed in that game.
But it fueled the hunger to practice harder and really get everything out of what's ahead of this Alabama team.
And as a result, I think they've played really connected.
I think especially with Charles Pediaco no longer being on the floor, everybody kind of knows it's on them.
So I think kind of as a result, everybody has found a way to elevate their game.
And even with the loss mixed in against Georgia, that's a very good Georgia team.
I think that was another wake-up of what it takes to make sure you win game in and game out when there is no margin for error in the NCAA tournament.
Roger, for the Alabama leaves and dies by the three crowd, Auburn did a good job of taking away the threes.
Alabama didn't particularly shoot the ones they took very well, but they went inside, rebounded 42-28 advantage over Auburn.
And I think they had 50-something points in the paint.
They took what the defense gave them, in other words.
But, yeah, Alabama can score in the paint.
Yeah, they really can.
And a variety of players can score in the paint.
You know, not all of that was from Aiden Sherell.
A lot of that was from Amari Allen.
A lot of it was Aiden Holloway, LeBaron Phylon Jr. driving to the basket, along with Latrell Reitzel Jr.
So it's a very diverse team in the way they can score and attack.
And I think the main thing is also going to be how do they defend.
And I think Nate's going to be talking about defense over these next few weeks.
Of course, we go through along this week at Nashville and then the NCAA tournament after that.
It's really going to be defense that makes the difference in whether or not Alabama has deep runs in either tournament coming up.
Roger Hoover in the huddle with us.
Roger, let's talk about something that has been as big an enemy for this team all season long, almost in the get-go, maybe even the preseason to now.
And we know what that is, the injury bug.
Two things on that.
Number one, it looks like, relative to what it could be, they are as healthy as they are, have been a long time.
I mean, not only that, they get the proverbial, much-coveted double-buy, which means they ain't got to worry about it until Friday.
Your thoughts just about where they are health-wise coming into this game and the benefits of having even, what, two extra bonus days?
Because let's go down the hypothetical route to borrow one of those big words.
If they face Texas eventually, that means that will be the third game in three days for the Longhorns, which will mean, on paper anyway, good opportunity for Alabama to get revenge from that earlier loss this season to Texas.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, of course, Nashville's been a really good home-court advantage for the Crimson Tide, winning a couple of SEC championships under NATO, having some good runs mixed in there.
Even in years, they didn't win the championship.
So, I think you're going to see a really rejuvenated team as they get ready.
You can't put a price tag on a home win against one of your huge rivals to close out the regular season, have that good momentum.
And then, I'm telling you, these seniors, guys like Houston Millett, Latrell Reitzel Jr., I mean, they are really enjoying every single practice from here on out,
knowing that their time is really limited in Alabama-Jersey, even if they go to the national championship game and play this season to a full extent.
But, you know, Latrell Reitzel mentioned that in our interview yesterday.
He goes, we have a potential nine games left playing for Alabama.
And he's like, for me, that's not enough.
Like, you know, I want to make sure I favor not only these opportunities to play games, but practices.
And it's just really refreshing to see.
I don't know if I've seen an Alabama team, maybe going back to that team that was number one with Brandon Miller,
really enjoying playing the game like this at this time.
Because if you remember, the team that went to the Final Four kind of stumbled into the postseason.
Last year wasn't the best finish either, going in to what turned out to be an Elite Eight run.
So, it's pretty refreshing to see this group enjoying each other's company and playing the kind of basketball they want
and knowing they are capable of a great run.
Talk to us a little bit more about that, Roger, because anyone who's ever played team sports
as opposed to individual sports like golf or track and field, some of those sports,
team sports is all about we, not me.
Talk to us just about the intangibles of people like Millett and others who are just,
basically, they don't look at stats.
They look at the final score.
Yeah, he's essentially another coach on the floor.
I think he's going to be a coach down the road.
That's certainly something he's really interested in.
And his dad has worked in collegiate athletics for a long time,
currently works as an associate AD at the University of South Carolina.
This guy is all about winning.
You know, Nate Oates said that he was upset Houston didn't get in the stat sheet on senior night
against Auburn, really wanted him to make a basket.
And he's like, no, coach, I did winning things to help our team.
He actually won the hard hat for doing a lot of the blue-collar things,
getting deflections, helping get some steals,
but things that don't really show up in the stat sheet as much as scoring.
But Houston's not wired like that.
You know, he's wired about helping out his teammates,
and he knows he's got LeBaron Phylon and Nate Holloway,
Reitzel, who are all going to score.
So I think this is as well-led team as I've really seen.
And that's saying a lot because, you know,
the two main leaders of this team, Latrell Reitzel,
as well as Houston, you know, both started their careers in other places.
And I think for all the criticism of the transfer portal age,
you're seeing those guys, along with Noah Williamson,
who absolutely love Alabama and have really poured everything they have
into this school and this program.
And I think fans should appreciate that, even when they see, okay,
maybe this guy didn't sign straight out of high school, you know,
and Aiden Holloway played for our biggest rival for a year.
And now he's come over and he's been an Alabama legend for two straight seasons.
So I think this is a group that has done a really good job being where their feet are
and pouring everything they have in this program.
I was delighted.
You had an extended stay in South Carolina with Alabama beating Mizzou,
Tennessee convincingly, but they ran into a buzzsaw with Texas.
In fact, Texas went on to win the SEC tournament.
Alabama had a rough second quarter.
Texas took it from there.
Roger, your thoughts on the tournament.
And we'll know Sunday, I believe it's 7 o'clock,
what's Alabama women's basketball status in the NCAA tournament?
Looking really good,
especially after Alabama had a winning week at the SEC tournament with those wins
against Missouri.
That fourth quarter was about as fun as I've had calling a game in years.
Seeing Ace Austin come off the bench and she'd been gone for a couple games
in the concussion protocol and she makes her first four three-pointers,
setting the place on fire.
That was a great performance by her.
And then they'd turn around the next day and you really manhandled Tennessee.
for nearly all 40 minutes of that game after you'd lost a pretty disappointing
fashion to them earlier in the season.
But it's remarkable.
You know, Tennessee with Pat Summitt had so many good teams in the 80s and 90s
into the 2000s.
Alabama had lost over 40 games in a row before Christy Curry got a win
against Tennessee in 2016.
And since then, she's added seven more.
So ten wins all time against the Lady Vols in Alabama history.
Christy Curry has eight of them.
It's just great to see.
have her success continue in this way.
And I think even though the Texas game didn't go as we wanted,
the same can be said for South Carolina.
A lot of people have said that's the South Carolina Invitational in the last few years.
It's close to their campus, only about an hour away from Columbia.
Well, Texas came in and dominated them as well.
So as tough as it was for Alabama to lose that ballgame,
you know you lost to the SEC champion as it turned out in the Texas Longhorns.
And it's just part of what's really a high level of basketball in the SEC.
So it's tremendous to see the progress that Alabama continues to make.
And the final question you asked was about what is it looking like for Alabama?
Currently projected as a number six seed for the NCAA tournament.
The latest bracketology had us in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which normally, if I'm going back off the last few years,
we will be anywhere but Ann Arbor, Michigan, because normally I try to kind of plan ahead and try to be like,
okay, where are we going to go, and always following that bracketology, and we end up somewhere completely different.
So I'm going ahead and predicting it.
We will be anywhere but Ann Arbor when we talk coming up next week.
Could be Pukiski, New York.
We'll check on that for you, Roger.
By the way, with all this basketball talk, is there anything going on in Tuscaloosa,
say football and softball or some of those other sports?
Yeah, that little sport called football, you know, they don't even have a game this year,
just the A-Day coming up on April 11th, which is great, but no, they are underway in the practice field.
Kalen DeBoer had a press conference earlier mentioning some of the injuries that are limiting Alabama.
You kind of always see that in spring practice, but he's excited about what this group can do,
and I think he knows that this is a really important spring practice to get this group better.
A lot of new faces both sides of the ball, some new coaches in the mix as well.
So it's exciting to have football practice going.
You mentioned the softball team.
They're undefeated.
They just rolled over Ole Miss over the weekend to start SEC play.
And then my guys, the baseball team, had a good swim over North Florida over the weekend,
and now we're a month into the season.
Four weeks are done of non-conference play.
We'll have a great midweek game coming up tonight against Troy.
Alabama and Troy is always a battle.
So I hope people can catch that either on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
I'll be on the call on TV on SEC Network Plus for that later tonight.
It's 6 o'clock.
And then, like I mentioned at the top of the show, heading to Kentucky this weekend,
where temperatures are going to be in the 40s and the 30s.
Maybe I'll have the window open in the press box.
Maybe I won't.
We'll see.
I'm packing a toboggan in my winter golf clubs just in case.
It's going to be a little chilly up there, but it's going to be a good start to the baseball season
for two programs that are kind of picked around the same spot in the SEC,
anywhere from like 8 to 10 in the SEC going into the year.
So it's important to try and get these wins, especially knowing how tough Alabama's schedule is going to be.
And I think there's a lot of excitement for Coach Vaughn about what this Alabama team is trying to be.
Absolutely.
Listen, have a great call this afternoon with Troy.
Yeah.
Good luck going to Lexington.
By the way, I believe Bryce Fowler, a member of the Alabama baseball team, is on Crimson Drive.
Who else have you got this week?
And where can we get online and listen to everything?
Yeah, we've got Bryce Fowler today at 2 o'clock on Crimson Drive.
Just follow us on our social media platforms to hear that interview.
We'll have softball pitcher Vic Moten coming up on our Thursday show.
And then if Brian Passink will text me back, maybe we'll get him on the Thursday show as well.
Good luck to have a good interview with him, breaking down the SEC tournament.
And then just, yeah, follow the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
We're going to be very busy over the week.
Some coverage from the guys in Nashville as well for what's hopefully a winning week
and a championship weekend for the Crimson Tide in basketball.
Yeah, safe travels to Kentucky.
And with those cold temperatures, beware of that fire water up there.
Okay, Roger?
You got it.
I trust you.
Thank you, Harold.
Thank you, buddy.
Roger Hoover hooking up with us on the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
What's going on down to the plains?
Talking to Auburn with Logan Fowler next on the Bumult Buck Show.
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The Score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back, kids.
It's a pleasure to say hello to Logan Fowler.
He's got the Auburn Tigers covered there at 1819 News and at Telgate Auburn.
That's T-A-L-E, Gate Auburn.
Logan, welcome in.
Happy Tuesday to you.
How are you?
Doing well, guys.
How are y'all?
Man, we're doing all right.
Logan, it's safe to say that for Auburn basketball fans, it's a chance to see if you see a week
that is where the glass is either half full or half empty.
Your thoughts heading into Nashville after this season?
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's certainly been at least a last half of the season to forgive for Auburn
and Auburn fans.
I think that obviously they have a chance to make some noise in Nashville.
I'm not going to count this team out.
I think they're plenty talented enough to go in and make a run.
I don't know if I necessarily see it coming, but you take on a Mississippi State team that
you lost to, obviously Josh Hubbard had 46 points, 35 in the first half.
You're going to look to bounce back from that regular season loss.
If you make it past Mississippi State, you get another team in Tennessee where this losing streak began, right?
So you get to avenge that loss from the regular season.
After that, I believe you get another team that you lost to in the regular season.
So they could come in with the chip on their shoulder.
And obviously, I think that you've probably got to win three to four games in Nashville to have a chance at a large bid in the NCAA tournament.
Logan, that's what I was going to ask you.
Figuring that Josh Hubbard's not going to score 46 again, even if he does 20 and Auburn wins the game, Nate Amiette is reportedly going to be playing for Tennessee again.
If Auburn meets Mississippi State and they play Tennessee down to the wire and lose, would that be enough to get an NCAA bid with the strength of schedule and the wins over St. John's, Florida, et cetera?
That's a good question.
I mean, me personally, I don't think so.
I think Auburn's got to go in there.
I think they've got to really, really work into Saturday and Sunday in Nashville next week or this weekend.
You know, I think that obviously you mentioned the strong resume.
That's what's kind of giving Auburn hope right now.
I mean, they've got the best win in the country on the road in Gainesville.
Obviously, you mentioned the wins against St. John's.
That NC State win kind of looked good.
Now it's dropped down to a quad two win and hurt Auburn's resume a little bit.
But I don't know.
I just don't think that the losses to Ole Miss at home, to Oklahoma, to Mississippi State, those are really, really bad losses.
And I think the only way that you're going to overcome that is with a three- to four-win week in Nashville.
Now, again, I can see Auburn going and making a statement, having a statement win there on Wednesday against Mississippi State.
But, you know, you match up, like you mentioned, against Natham and a Tennessee team that's very physical, plays really good brand of defense, has a lot of weapons and scores.
And this Auburn team right now, they've had, you know, chance after chance after chance to make a statement in the back half of the season.
They haven't just, they haven't shown up.
Will they show up this week in Nashville?
I don't know.
But I just don't like Tennessee's style of play versus this Auburn team right now.
Logan Fowler, Hogan, up with us.
Again, 1819 News.
Logan, the question to me is, it's pretty obvious that it would take a miracle.
And I appreciate your honesty, giving your position there.
You just got to take it like it is.
That's kind of our mantra here, and let the chips fall where they may.
The bigger question is, sit here and be realistic.
What's Auburn got to fix?
And Brent, you know, we're just talking at the top of the show.
One way you do that is get prize recruits, hopefully with the routes to Alabama.
Well, Holt just left.
Caleb Holt just left the state.
Neither Auburn nor Alabama.
He's going to Arizona.
Welcome to the modern age of NIL and attractive packages.
Back to the original point, let's just say that the miracle doesn't fall.
Where does Auburn start fixing this problem starting next season?
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I think that Stephen Pearl is going to be on the sidelines next season.
Just a gut guess feeling, I guess, on that.
But I think that Stephen Pearl's got to go out and hit the trail really hard and get his
guys who play his brand of basketball in his locker room.
I think that he is a defensive-minded guy.
He was obviously the defensive coordinator at Auburn in seasons prior to taking over the
head coaching job.
And this roster right here that he's got is just not a defensive savvy group.
They don't play physical.
They don't play hard.
Well, like I said, they don't play hard.
But they're not a physical defensive-minded team like Stephen Pearl.
I think that's going to be his style at Auburn in the coming years when he has a chance to
build his own roster.
Now, he took place in recruiting this roster last year.
He knew exactly who him and his father were bringing in.
And so, I think that when he hits the trail this offseason, when he gets some of his guys in
that play his brand of basketball, I think it's going to help out in the long run.
Switching to spring football, which basketball is overshadowed now, Will, for the next couple
of weeks.
But Auburn gets started next week.
Logan, what's your questions?
Obviously, offensively, Brown coming in, I think a lot of people feel confident.
17 or 18 offensive linemen, they've got to go through that competition.
What are your top two or three questions for spring football for Alex Golich?
Yeah, number one is obviously, and I guess you can form this into a couple of questions,
is how are they going to look in the trenches?
And like you mentioned, especially on the offensive side of the ball, I feel pretty confident in
Byron Brown.
I think that it's just a wait-and-see game on if his game is going to translate to the SEC,
which I don't think is going to be a problem for him.
I think the way that Golich and Joel Gordon have talked about him and the leader and just
the impact he's had on the locker room and the program at USF, I just don't see his game
taking any hits in the SEC.
I think that the biggest question is who is going to step up and start on the offensive
line.
You're replacing five starters.
You had all of the trio of USF guys come over.
I think that's going to be big for Auburn.
But it's been a huge question mark, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
The last few seasons is the lackluster play up front in the trenches.
And then vice versa, who's going to step up in the middle on the defensive side of the ball?
You know, obviously in the middle of that defense, you've got Xavier Atkins in a pretty
experienced linebacker room returning.
But you got a big off-season pickup with Dallas Walker coming back and getting another year.
Jordan Crawford, Malik Autry are returning for their second year.
You had a couple of big pickups through the portal.
How do those guys mesh?
Deshaun Womack on the end, that could be a huge pickup for Auburn, a former five-star coming
over from Ole Miss.
So how does that defensive front mesh and how are they going to translate together?
And then I'm interested to see how this staff meshes together and some of the guys who haven't
been with Golesh at USF.
You know, obviously you've got Joel Gordon, Cody Burns, Hudanik, DeMarcus Van Dyke, some
of those guys who have been under Golesh, who know the way that he operates.
But you've got, other than those, you've got a ton of guys who have a lot of experience but
are going to be, you know, behind the eight ball, I guess you could say, in operating in
the system that these other guys have been operating in for years.
So I'm interested to see how Tim Banks, how Larry Porter and Hutzler and some of those guys,
what their skills are going to bring to the defensive side of the ball, especially a lot
of experience over there.
So I'm interested to see how this staff kind of meshes together.
That's a great point because you can, if you, if these guys, they've been speaking a
certain language together, but all of a sudden you step off the plane, there's another language.
How soon are you going to get through that hurdle?
The other question, Logan, by the way, Logan Fowler, again, 1819 News.
You mentioned Brown, obviously he is a rock and roll star.
The other part is what, correct me if I'm wrong, 13 guys coming from South Florida, in this
case to South Alabama, to Auburn, 11 on offense, correct me if I'm wrong.
There's 11 people who play offense in some ways.
Number wise, it's an entirely Southern, South Florida offense coming up with him.
Your thoughts on how are they going to mesh playing a South Florida schedule?
I know they beat Florida last year, but how will these guys handle a week to weeks SEC schedule?
Yeah.
I mean, you, yeah, you mentioned it.
Look, this was one of the best offenses in the country last year, led by.
Led by Byron Brown, they put up gaudy numbers and, you know, again, it was against lesser competition,
but skill is skill and I think it translates, it'll translate to the SEC.
I don't really have a problem thinking that it won't.
I do, I really like the fact that some of these new guys are going to be able to rely on 11
offensive guys coming over for USF.
That's going to make this transition so seamless.
It's going to make the spring, like, you know, you don't have a competition under center this spring.
You know who your guy is at the quarterback spot.
You know who your running back is going to be.
You have a pretty good feeling of who's going to step up out wide.
It's going to make a spring for a lot of teaching, I guess, for these new guys.
I think that that's going to be huge and I don't doubt that these guys can maybe not put up the same numbers
where they lead the country in total offense and are putting up, you know, numbers through the air
and on the ground like they were at South Florida.
But if you can have a, you know, a 3,000-yard passer and a 1,000-yard rusher at either quarterback or running back
and, you know, I think there's going to be a lot of options outside.
So I wouldn't necessarily say they're going to have a 1,000-yard receiver,
but get a couple of guys who are up there close to that mark.
I think you're going to see a lot of success for Auburn on the offensive side of the ball
and that's certainly what has been lacking over the past few years.
And as long as D.J. Durkin is leading the charge on the defensive side of the ball,
I really do think that Auburn is going to improve and make some moves in the SEC this year.
It's just a matter of, you know, what does the expectations for Auburn look like realistically in year one?
Is that, you know, six wins? Is that an improvement?
It is, technically speaking.
But I could see this Auburn team getting to the 7-8-9 win mark
and that would be, you know, a pretty substantial improvement for Alex Golesh in year one.
Yeah, that would make a lot of Auburn fans, Logan, very happy.
Great to have you on the show again.
Update about basketball and football.
Auburn baseball doing pretty well, too.
They're going to Columbia, Missouri this weekend.
They got UAB, I believe, tonight.
Where can we get online, Logan, and get all your good stuff?
Sure, you can catch me on X at Logan F. Fowler.
And you can give me a check out at Tailgate Auburn for my written work and 1819 News.
That's great, Logan.
Listen, thanks so much.
Interesting time of the year.
It may be March, but it's busy.
Safe travels to and from wherever you go.
And let's do it again soon, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you, bud.
Logan Fowler, 1819 News, and again, also at Tailgate, that's T-A-L-E-Gates, Auburn.
Coming up, time to open the gates of Vegas and say hello to Bruce Marshall on deck.
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Progressive presents the Sports Flash on 93-9, The Score.
The Troy men's basketball team won the Sunbelt Championship yesterday as Troy defeated Georgia Southern in Pensacola, Florida, 77-61.
Trojans are on to the NCAA tournament.
Troy women's basketball team fell in the Sunbelt Championship to James Madison, 69-52.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
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Welcome back in.
Who said good things don't come to those who wait?
Bruce Marshall is busy all over the place these days.
Las Vegas Insiders.
The Gold.
Hang on.
Hang on.
The Gold Sheet slash Wager Talk.
We'll talk about that in a second.
Winners and Winers, Picks and Parleys, and his podcast, Bet Rivers and Vegas Insider.
Bruce Marshall, welcome in.
And on behalf of Brett Beaird, will you accept or high five on congratulations to returning to the Gold Sheet slash Wager Talk?
Yes, I do.
I feel like one of those, and thank you, I feel like one of those recycled NHL coaches like Rick Bonas coaching Winnipeg a third time.
This is actually my third stint there.
Well, Winners and Winers and Picks and Parleys are part of it.
That's under the Wager Talk umbrella, but so is the Gold Sheet now.
And these are the same fellows we sold the company to a few years back, and they asked me if I wanted to return.
And I'm back.
And I'm doing all the college hoops for them now, so I am back home, I guess you could say.
Congratulations.
I had an old friend back in the day.
He was asked that question.
He said, well, cross my palm.
There's your answer.
And they crossed his palm, and he said, let's go.
Now, Bruce, one thing that's just so busy is that because this is a busy time of the year for folks who love college basketball,
especially your neighbors there in Vegas.
Yeah, it really is.
And there's tournaments, you know, galore going on in Vegas this week.
And over at the Orleans, they'll get done with one tonight, and the WCC and the WAC will move in right after that.
So they'll be painting different things on the floor and all that.
And then the Mountain West starts down the street at UNLV and right down the street from where I live, the Big West in Henderson.
And then next year, of course, the Pac-12 will be back, and I'm almost 100% sure they'll be in with their tournament somewhere in Vegas, too.
One of these years, I expect to see the SEC in Vegas.
I mean, how much money do they got?
Show me the money, Bruce.
Show me the money.
Where do you start?
What is the most intriguing story?
Let's start first things first.
You've got the respective conference tournaments.
You know where we are, but in your opinion, what is the most intriguing storyline coming into conference tournament week?
Yeah, you know, right now, it's always at the bubble and at the edge because I think, although we make a pretty big deal about it every year,
we end up spending 90% of our time before the tournament talking about the final few teams that might actually make it in.
And those teams rarely seem to last very long in the tournament anyway.
So, I mean, if there's drama in tournament week, it's actually in a place like the SEC or the Big Ten,
and how deep are they actually going to go in those leagues?
The SEC, I think, is maybe a little more interesting this year because at the edge of the field, it has gotten a little crowded there.
Auburn has fallen back to the pack.
So has Texas some.
And they're coming up strong on the outside, Oklahoma.
All of a sudden, now they're in the mix.
And so I think, you know, what these conference tournaments sometimes do, though, is call that, you know, the edge of the bubble there.
And these tournaments often use or, you know, can be used as, you know, eliminators for some of these teams to get them out.
So there's a lot at stake for some of these teams.
I think maybe more of these SEC games mean something because you do have, you know, more teams, I think,
hanging around the edge of the bubble in the cut line in the SEC than other leagues.
It'll be interesting when they tip this thing off here in the National.
Let me ask you about two in-state teams that you tip me off about.
First one is Troy for the second consecutive year.
They're going to the NCAA tournament.
They beat Georgia Southern 77-61 last night.
Scott Crawlson may be the most underrated coach in the state of Alabama.
But what was so fascinating was they were playing Georgia Southern.
He coaches Georgia Southern.
Charlie Henry, Nate Oates, former defensive coordinator, coaches Georgia Southern.
And they could have won their sixth game in six days.
That is truly remarkable.
Cross is incredible himself.
I want you to talk about that.
And UAB and Andy Kennedy have got one of the most incredible oddities I've ever seen.
UAB is 0-9 at home against the spread in Gene Bartol Arena.
But an incredible 9-0 straight up on the road.
How do you explain that?
Go, Bruce!
Talk about an inside-out team.
And by the way, I think the Sun Belt has finally finished.
I think they started that tournament in Pensacola about Super Bowl week because it seemed to go on forever.
Yeah, I don't ever remember a team playing six straight days like Georgia Southern.
They finally ran out of gas.
Last night, listen, Scott Cross has won almost 350 games in his career.
And he had a pretty good run at UT Arlington.
And, you know, they moved him out mistakenly several years ago in Arlington because he had won there.
And they thought, okay, we need a new direction.
Well, it hasn't worked out too well for them since, like you said, Cross winning back into the dance with Troy.
We saw them early in the season out on the West Coast win a double overtime game at San Diego State
and a triple overtime game lost in the last second to USC when USC was actually good back in December.
So we got an idea back then that they were pretty good.
All the guys can shoot at Troy.
It's five out.
The Campbell brothers can really wing it.
Meldez, the forward, steps outside and shoot.
Everybody shoots threes.
They will not be an easy out for whoever they play.
Now, UAB, this one really confounds because I have never seen that sort of a bipolar pattern for my team in my life.
Now, the thing is, when UAB is good, I think they actually have a shot to win the tournament.
Now, and here's the kicker.
So they are playing the American tournament in Birmingham.
Now, how does UAB react to that?
You gave it that note.
I mean, they didn't cover a point spread at Queen Jean Bartow Arena this year, but this is not at Bartow Arena.
It is downtown at the BJCC at the Legacy Arena.
So how does this work if Bartow Arena is really haunted for UAB?
But maybe that's the only place that's haunted.
And like you said, they won every American game away from Bartow Arena this year, which is some kind of a record.
And I think that's kind of a wide-open tournament anyway.
So I would sort of side with the latter that, okay, they're out of Bartow Arena.
They play really well when they're not there, and this is not Bartow Arena.
Never mind, it's within the city limits.
So that's the most compounding trend I've seen all year for sure.
Really.
Home, sour home in that case.
Bruce, busy there with the gold sheets, last wager talk.
Bruce, let's go to the hypothetics of the Auburn Tigers.
Obviously, if they win the SEC tournament, we know the answer to that question.
How many, if any at all, will Auburn need to stamp their tickets to the NCAA tournament?
You know, I think they're going to need to make a pretty deep run here to have a chance.
And I can remember, you know, oh, a few years ago, I think Eric Musselman made a run
and right after he got to Arkansas before they had that, you know, that really long run
and got right, you know, to the end.
And then, I'm sorry, no, it was Texas A&M that year.
I think they got all the way to the end.
And even to the conference final, that wasn't enough to get them into the field.
So I wonder about Auburn.
Now, Joe and Artie seem to think Auburn still has a real shot.
They just have so many losses, and they're going to be going into Selection Sunday
unless they win in Nashville this week.
They're going to go in with 16 losses.
That is a lot.
So they're sort of, and they talk about bubble thieves elsewhere,
that the teams that are really susceptible to bubble thieves
knocking them out of the tournament are teams like Auburn.
So they need no upsets to happen in these other tournaments,
and they have got to make a very deep run this week.
I don't, I mean, they've lost 8 of 10 coming into the tournament.
Yeah.
I don't see how it's going to work for Auburn.
I really don't.
Who's hot coming into Nashville?
You alluded to this earlier.
Oklahoma reinvented themselves.
That may be the biggest surprise to me of the latter half of the season.
Ponder Moser has waved a magic wand.
Four straight, six of eight.
Georgia's won three in a row, including upsetting Alabama and Athens.
Maybe the best team they've had in 10 years.
Alabama's won nine of ten, including beating Auburn Saturday night.
And there's the Gators, who will probably be there Sunday afternoon,
having won 11 straight.
Who does Bruce Marshall see in a Sunday afternoon playing for the tournament championship?
I would be surprised if one of them is in Florida.
And I think Florida's, you know, they're going through this league like Godzilla now.
And, I mean, to pull away three lengths clear in this league on top of the table is really something.
And as long as they're healthy and Huff is back in there,
I think they will certainly be there and probably win on Sunday.
Now, who are they going to play?
I think there are nine spots, right, nine teams for sure, I think, from the SEC are going to the dance.
So Alabama, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, A&M, Georgia, Mizzou, and Kentucky,
I think they're all there plus Florida.
That's nine.
Will one of those eight be playing Florida in the final?
Could be.
At the cut line, then you've got Texas, Oklahoma, and Auburn.
Could one of those make a run?
In the case of Texas, if it did, I think that would solidify their bid into the safe side of the cut line.
Maybe Oklahoma and maybe Auburn, too.
But Oklahoma is really interesting.
They do open up with South Carolina tomorrow, a chance for another win that would give them 18.
Here's the longest-serving college basketball player I remember is Nigel Pack.
I don't know how long ago his career started, but it was a long time ago at Kansas State.
He's went to Miami.
They paid him a lot of money.
I can't believe he had another year of eligibility.
Here he is at Oklahoma, and he is actually starting to play his best ball in the last month.
And it's a pretty darn good backcourt with him and Xavier Brown who transferred in from St. Joe's.
I think this team is dangerous.
I would not be surprised.
I'm not sure how the bracket's set up.
But, I mean, if they end up playing Saturday and then maybe even Sunday if they don't have to hit Florida until then,
maybe Oklahoma's the team that's going to make a run here.
That's the team I'd watch up in Nashville.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, for the folks who have Vegas on the radar,
Bruce, who is the Bruce Marshall under-the-radar game starting tonight or this week?
Watch this Santa Clara-Gonzaga game tonight.
That's the late one on ESPN tonight.
And Santa Clara, a lot of people think, has kind of sewn up a bit after beating St. Mary's last night.
I'm not 100% sure of that just because of selection Sunday dynamics.
Are they really going to put three West Coast Conference teams in there?
It's only been once, what, in the last 13 years they've done that.
But I think Santa Clara's actually got a shot at Gonzaga tonight,
which did not look all that impressive against Oregon State last night.
They've got their bid sealed up.
They have missed Braden Huff since the first Santa Clara game.
He's the other 6-10 big along with EK.
Although they have mostly mowed through the West Coast Conference and did beat Santa Clara twice.
Santa Clara led in the second half of both of those games.
Herb Sednick's got a really good team.
And they've had, well, I think in their last eight, nine games, seven different leading scorers.
Really good balance there.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Santa Clara just gets that automatic bid out of the WCC
and beats a Gonzaga later tonight.
So there's some others.
By the way, there's a few others going on in the ACC teams that sort of have to win to stay on the bubble.
SMU has won Andy Enfield.
I don't know if they're going to do it.
I think Syracuse might give them a big fight today.
They're playing in Charlotte later.
Sanford's another one making a move.
They're playing Pitt.
By the way, that's later today.
The ACC, some of these coaches like Autry's at Syracuse, Jeff Capel at Pitt,
they've got to be looking around wondering what's going on after the axe fell on a couple of their conference counterparts yesterday.
Earl Grant at BC, Damon Stoudemire at Georgia Tech.
The dog-eat-dog world out there in the ACC, they still want to win in that league.
So those guys better be careful.
Bama is 23-8, 13-5 in the conference, 15 on Ken Palm, 17 on the net.
If they win just one game in Nashville, is that enough for them to be a three seed?
Could be.
And I think they're not going to be any worse than on the four line.
And that gives them a protected seed.
And all that means is they'll probably get a more favorable geographic assignment in the sub-regionals.
And I think the way it shapes up this year, that would either be Greenville or down in Florida somewhere in the sub-regional.
But I think they're probably on the three-four line.
And if they win a couple games later this week in Nashville, that'll probably move them, solidify them on the three.
I don't see them dropping lower than the four line, though.
And that's not bad between a three or four.
You know, that's not too bad.
And they won't put them in the same region as Florida, I wouldn't think.
The only two teams I'd be really scared and not want to see for as long as possible are Florida and Duke right now.
I think they're the two best teams you can make the case for Arizona, Michigan maybe.
But I think those are your top, you know, the four number one seeds.
And I wouldn't want to see Florida for as long as possible if I'm in the brackets.
Well, the number one seed all the time is the Gold Sheet with Bruce Marshall, my friend, where, again, update us about the change.
We're delighted to hear it.
Where can we get all the great stuff online?
Yeah, well, now you can find the Gold Sheet now under the WagerTalk platform.
So you go to wagertalk.com, and the Gold Sheet is right up there.
And right on the first page, you can click it and check out all my stuff because it's all college hoops right now.
My friend James is doing NBA right now, and I'm doing colleges.
So it's up there at the WagerTalk platform, and go to goldsheet.com, also part of that platform, winnersandwiners.com, picksandparlays.com.
You're busier than a one-armed Bennett in Vegas.
Bruce, again, congratulations on the news.
Thank you so much.
Have a great week, okay?
Okay, boys.
Thank you.
Thank you, buddy.
Bruce Marshall, busy all over the place in Vegas.
Quickly, we talked about the strength of schedule.
Quickly, this is from Athlon.
Number one team, Texas.
Then Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma.
Ole Miss is your top five, going all the way down to the other side of the spectrum.
The Auburn Tigers have got a quarter of these folks.
Ninth of his schedule in the country.
And how about this?
There's 16 teams in the SEC at number 14, the Alabama Crimson Tide, Brett Beaird.
It's interesting.
Yeah, I think the folks down to Tuscaloosa might disagree with that.
Coming up the next try, I'm going to be taking it all over the place.
Get Matt Michelle's observations on that.
Joe Cox across the SEC.
And Andrew Bones, speaking of Alabama, talking Tide.
Time to get things rolling in the second hour of the Bumont Buck Show.
Stay with us.
I'm Chris Stewart.
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A captain within the U.S. Navy Reserves, Morgan Murphy, has now announced that he will be dropping out of the Republican Senate primary race here in Alabama.
Murphy says that Republicans do not need to waste time or money fighting each other in this crowded field.
Instead, Murphy says he's going to focus on flipping one of the two U.S. House seats here in Alabama that is currently being held by Democrats.
Murphy is also endorsing U.S. Congressman Barry Moore in the Senate primary.
Moore is up against Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and former U.S. Navy SEAL Jared Hudson.
I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this.
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The National Weather Service out of Birmingham is going to deploy teams to Winston, Tuscaloosa, and Jefferson counties to survey storm damage caused by thunderstorms that came in on Monday night.
The NWS will be looking for signs of tornadoes touching down, as well as extreme wind damage.
No injuries or fatalities have been reported from those storms.
Alabama native Jesse Holmes is going to go for a repeat win in the Iditarod race in Alaska.
Holmes won the 1,000-mile sled dog race last year after starting with dog sled racing back in 2018.
The Iditarod has been conducted since 1973 with dog sleds racing from Anchorage to Nome.
The Underwood Elementary School in Lauderdale County is being closed for the next two days due to high levels of sickness and subsequent absences of student and staff.
I'm Andrea Tess.
For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com.
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This Friday, Alabama is in Nashville for the quarterfinals of the SEC basketball tournament.
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Alabama in the SEC tournament.
This Friday afternoon at 5 on 93.9, the score.
93.9, the score weather.
Today, a 20% chance of showers, possibly a thunderstorm, and a high around 80.
Tonight, mostly cloudy with a 10% chance of showers overnight and a low near 65.
Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of showers and a high around 80.
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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.
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.
Welcome back again.
I'm Harold Bugg, alongside Brett Beaird.
Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
With that, it's one better way to tip off this second hour than saying hello to A.B., Andrew Bone,
fine columnist and recruiting editor for Bama Online as part of the On3.com family.
And his book is called The Road to Bama.
Andrew, welcome in.
Happy Tuesday to you.
How are you?
Hey, doing good, guys.
How we doing?
Good, man.
We're doing all right.
Obviously, a lot to get to this hour with basketball getting ready to pack it up for the music city
and the tournament there and football kicking off.
But your thoughts about speaking of recruiting some news today, Caleb Holtz, obviously one of the best players on paper
to ever come out of high school with roots to Alabama, played over at Buckhorn before the modern era.
Everybody else kept up in the ante, and he's been all over the place as far as some of these all-star spots,
committing earlier today to the U of A, but not the U of A in Tuscaloosa, but the one out west.
Your thoughts about Caleb Holtz right now, anyway, taking his promising future to the desert of Arizona.
Oh, yeah, you know, I think it was a tough loss for Alabama, more so probably because they've recruited him for such a long time.
I mean, you kind of go back three or four years where he's had a relationship with the Alabama coaching staff,
but, yeah, this is always going to be a tough pull.
I think that, obviously, Arizona, you know, made a big push, and they were able to secure his commitment.
I'm interested, yeah, yeah, it would have been interesting to see what Alabama's class may have been ranked in basketball,
if they were able to pull off Holtz, I mean, potentially in that top two, but, you know, currently number five in the country.
So, yeah, still a good class, especially, you know, after getting a commitment recently from Jackson Richardson,
you know, who a lot of people thought was a, you know, was a surprise.
So I think that, overall, they still have a good class, but, you know, you certainly hate to lose out on Holtz.
You have a very good article about your, you've got 15 spring predictions, and, unfortunately, with our time limits,
we won't be able to go through all 15, but we'll go over some of them, and I'll go and get the quarterbacks out of the way.
I'd be shocked if Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb named his starting quarterback at the end of the spring for multiple reasons,
but this is one of the best quarterback rooms in the country.
Austin Mack, who's very familiar, you're up to three years in this system.
Rick, Elon Russell, a phenom, a lot of people think he's going to be a superstar.
And I agree with you, Ken, freshman, Jet Famola, actually pushed both of these guys.
No matter who wins it or when it's announced, Andrew, no question, incredibly talented quarterback room.
Yeah, there's no question about it.
You know, I think that, you know, even as, you know, coming out of practice today, you know,
Coach DeBoer mentioned that those two guys, Russell and Mack, are light years ahead of where they were this time a year ago.
You know, obviously that's certainly true, and then certainly how I feel, you know,
you've got two guys in that room who I think they are very confident and comfortable with running the offense.
You know, even if that was today, starting, you know, first game was today.
I think they would be confident in either one.
You want those two guys to grow and progress and have one of them win the starting job.
Now, I would be shocked if we got into August and we knew who QB1 was.
That would be probably the biggest surprise to me.
I think this is going to go on, you know, maybe even until after the first game.
I think both are probably going to get reps in that first one before the SEC schedule starts in week two at Kentucky.
So, really intrigued to kind of see how things are going to play out.
I think based on where they were this time a year ago, I mean, you look back at this time a year ago
and everybody's kind of assuming, all right, this is going to be Ty's year, but nobody really knew.
And then, you know, was either one of the second team guys going to be able to potentially push him
or, you know, were either one of them even going to be ready?
And I think this year you're in a little bit of a different situation,
whereas you feel really confident that one of the two guys, you know, can win you a lot of football games.
It's just a matter of who's it going to be.
And, you know, you've got a couple of freshmen that are in, like Jet Tamala and Tayden Kawada.
Jet was the higher-ranked kid, top one.
You know, he ends up being a five-star recruit, according to rivals.
And I certainly think he has a lot of talent.
Now, is he going to come in and really be a challenger to win the starting job?
Probably not.
But I think that having a player of that caliber in the room with you, you know, competing, pushing the guys,
you know, sort of like when Alabama was able to get, and I don't want to compare Jet to these guys,
but when they were able to get guys like Bryce Young in, when they got, you know, Jalen Hurts in,
when they got Tully in, each one of those freshmen made that room better.
Obviously, Jalen ended up being the starter in his first year.
But I think whenever you can get a very high-quality quarterback in as a true freshman that can come in and, you know,
has a lot of hype.
But Austin Mack and especially Keylon had a lot of hype as well.
So it's going to be a fun competition to kind of see who ends up winning that, you know, right now two-way race.
Andrew Vaughn, visit AlabamaOnline.com.
Andrew, one thing that I think a lot of folks slash Ty Simpson, he didn't have a running game.
It was all on his shoulders last year.
You take the fact that anything north of that is going to be an improvement for the running game this season,
whoever's going to be quarterback.
And some news we shared earlier, Andrew, and that is the folks at Athlon.
How smart are they?
We'll know.
We'll know.
Starting in August, September.
They got Alabama's strength of schedule ranked at 14th out of 16th.
Obviously, you don't want to start against Florida State with that starting last year.
When you look at the schedule this year and a more promising running game,
do you agree with Athlon that Alabama right now, as far as strength of schedule,
has a pretty favorable, at least in the early part of the year,
to get some leverage compared to last year, a favorable schedule?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, I think that, you know, the biggest question heading into is obviously a lot of inexperience.
It's a lot of guys that haven't played together before.
I mean, obviously, you have the back end of the secondary that's going to be the strength of the team.
But, you know, you want to have guys that are going to be able to get accustomed to playing with each other
and not just on the practice field.
You know, you've got a – I don't want to say it's an easy schedule,
but you open up with East Carolina.
You go to Kentucky.
You play at home against Florida State.
You play at home against South Carolina.
So, you have three home games, you know, that month in September to kind of get you accustomed to playing with each other.
And, you know, hopefully you have a starting lineup, especially on the offensive line,
where you're not continuing to rotate guys in and try to figure out, you know, who your best players are.
You know, hopefully they'll have an idea of who their best players are by then and be confident.
So, yeah, I mean, I think the schedule certainly, you know, opens up pretty well for them in September,
you know, especially with those home games.
But, you know, obviously, you know, October is going to be a gauntlet when things open up.
Because you go at Mississippi State, Georgia, at Tennessee, A&M.
I mean, that's a schedule right there for October.
So, it's going to be challenging.
And we'll kind of see where Alabama is, you know, by then.
Andrew, I can safely tell you right now,
the team that's got the best secondary in the country resides in Tuscaloosa.
Dajon Lee, Zane Mencee, the Mercer transfer, Camilla O'Neal,
Zabian Brown, Mr. Pick 6.
Ivan Taylor, Chuck McDonald, Jaira Edwards, who I hear 6'1", 6'2", 220, Jordan Edmonds.
If these dudes stay healthy, oh, yeah,
Dre Kirkpatrick Jr. coming out of the doghouse.
If these dudes stay healthy, that's going to be quite a unit.
No doubt.
Yeah, I've said it before.
I think no doubt about it, that it's going to be the best defensive back unit in college football.
And you mentioned Jaira Edwards being 200 and I think he's 222 pounds right now.
I'm really intrigued to kind of see, does he end up playing, you know, staying at safety as a big, big safety?
Or does Alabama potentially consider him at least giving him some reps at linebacker just because of, you know,
I think that's a positional group that, you know, it's pretty wide open right now as far as starters or rotational players,
guys that have a lot of inexperience.
So you wouldn't be surprised just because of how deep they are in the secondary.
So I think that might be something to potentially watch.
I'm not saying it will happen, but as far as the secondary overall, just a really good group.
And I told a parent of one of the starters earlier today, I said, yeah,
I think if probably 16 teams in the SEC because they're always going to show love to multiple schools.
And there's talent, obviously, all over the league.
And I could see every single player in that starting secondary being an all-SEC first- or second-team player.
I mean, you're going to have two guys.
I think there's a good chance there are two guys that are going to be first, maybe not first-team,
but first- or second-team all-Americans to open up the season with Bray Hubbard and Zabian Brown.
I mean, that's just how good those guys are in getting them back on campus.
Obviously, you have Keon Saab, Dejean Lee coming off a freshman All-American season.
There's just a lot of really good, talented players.
And I think when you have guys in the rotation that can really contribute and help your team out,
you don't just have to lean on the starters and be worried if one of those guys go down
because you have guys behind them that are, I don't want to say just as good,
but they're very talented, and I think that Alabama has done a tremendous job recruiting the secondary
from the portal and from high school and really developing these guys pretty well.
I remember when Nick Saban retired and then Traveris Robinson left and went to Georgia.
A lot of fans were worried and nervous that Alabama was going to just not be as dominant in the secondary anymore
because they weren't going to be able to recruit the same caliber of players.
And in my opinion, they've done even better.
Just overall, the last few years as far as signing these really talented high school football players,
you can imagine that Nick Saban pays pretty close attention.
And I know he's met a lot of these guys, but he'll probably be impressed with all these six-foot-three defensive backs
walking around campus.
He's probably glad he's not out there anymore because they're all towering above him,
but I think he'd be really impressed with and has been impressed with the way that the secondary performed since his departure.
That's the thing that impresses me so much about the secondary is their length.
These guys are so tall.
It is just absolutely amazing.
You also had the recruits visiting spring.
They had some of the recruits come in and sit in on meetings and the first day of practice.
That's something you didn't see really three or four years ago, and I know you've got a list of those guys.
Again, great article.
Your 15 questions about spring practice going in by columnist and recruiting editor Andrew Bone.
A.B., where can we get online and get your stuff?
Charlie Potters.
Blake Ballard does a great job with basketball.
Where can we get all the good stuff?
Yeah, come check us out at bamonline.com.
Obviously, you can get a lot of free stuff out there and stuff that's all over social media,
but you come on our site.
We'll give you plenty of insight, plenty of discussion, interviews, especially on the recruiting front,
but we have it all.
Basketball coverage.
About to amp up even more with the SEC tournament, so we'll have it all,
and come talk to us at BOL, and we're on the message board all day long.
So it's not just reading the content and seeing what's going on, but it's having pretty much a live chat with me
and my teammates at BOL all day, all night, every single day.
No shortage of feedback and opinions.
Andrew, thanks so much for your time today, and have a great week, okay?
Appreciate it, guys.
Have a good one.
You too, bud.
Andrew Bone, Bama Online, part of the On3.com family, and again, his book is called The Road to Bama.
Coming up, it's tourney time in Nashville from A to Z in the SEC with Joe Cox.
Next, stay with us.
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Here are thoughts from baseball head coach Rob Vaughn after the Crimson Tide swept North
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Yeah, good weekend.
Good weekend.
Good one today.
You know, kind of weird preparation.
We hit inside.
I kind of met with our team in the clubhouse before BP today because it felt like, for you
that were here last year, like Presbyterian 2.0 a little bit.
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The score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in, as we mentioned, heading out the last segment.
If you want to know about the SEC tournament from A to Z,
no better place to go than Joe Cox buying columnist Saturday down south.
His book's called A Fine Team Man.
Joe, welcome in on the eve of basketball heaven.
For SEC basketball fans, would you agree?
Oh, absolutely.
It's a fun time, and, you know, you've got to love having this week,
and then next week back-to-back, you know, it's just, it's awesome.
It's what we wait the other 50 weeks of the year for, I guess.
There you go.
Something you don't see very rarely.
A million-dollar check in the box, and Kentucky basketball tipping off the SEC basketball tournament,
as they will tomorrow.
Taking on LSU, Joe, do I even need to ask what happens if things go south for Kentucky
in that game against LSU for fans?
And more importantly, for restaurant and bar owners across the street,
they bank, they get a lot of green off the Big Blue Nation, do they not?
You know, I have been there enough times to say authoritatively,
if Kentucky goes down early, the crowd is a lot thinner for the rest of the time.
So, yeah, I'd say that if you've got a business in Nashville,
you're probably a bigger Kentucky fan than most Lexingtonians this time of year.
Talk to us about your expectations, because for the folks who are regular on the show,
they know you call Kentucky home.
What's realistic about this team that's basically been, forget the mascot being a Wildcat,
they've been on a rollercoaster like a lot of teams.
What is realistic for this team going forward?
You know, I don't think it's implausible to beat LSU and then beat Missouri
and get to another rematch with Florida.
And the truth is, they've played Florida about as well as anybody here in recent weeks.
I mean, they've lost to them by, I think, 7-9,
and that's about as good as most teams are going to do this time of year.
But, you know, it really is a situation where, short of, you know,
making some kind of improbable run and beating Florida.
There's not a lot for Kentucky to gain here, but there is plenty to lose.
If you lose this game to LSU, I mean, it doesn't knock them out of the tournament.
I think they're still safe on that.
But I think it probably does throw them down into an 8-9 game
and a second-round matchup potentially with one of those Goliaths,
and you don't want that.
And you don't want, you know, the narrative going into the offseason being another disappointment.
It's going to be hard for it not to be that at this point.
Joe, most people think Sunday afternoon the Florida Gators are going to play somebody.
They've won 11 consecutive games, 25-6, 16-2.
It's still hard to believe.
I think the Auburn win was an aberration in Gainesville.
But who's hot?
The Oklahoma Sooners, four straight, six of eight.
Georgia has won three in a row, 22-9, 10-8.
Some team in Tuscaloosa has won 9 of 10.
Who does Joe Cox think would be playing the Florida Gators Sunday afternoon?
You know, if we get to that Alabama-Arkansas matchup, boy, that would be a lot of fun.
I'd like to see that again on Saturday.
And, of course, we've got a good chance to see that.
Georgia, you mentioned, is one of the teams that would be invested in making that not happen.
And let's not forget Texas A&M down there as well.
Either of them could be dangerous on a given day.
But, you know, I think there's a good chance it does come back down to Arkansas and Alabama.
And that will be a great tune-up for either of those teams, for both of those teams, really,
just however it comes out.
But, you know, as far as who would win that,
I would probably give a slight edge to Bama just because of how reliant Arkansas is on freshmen.
And they're good freshmen, but they're still freshmen, and they haven't done this before.
So I'm going to say slight edge to Bama.
Joe Cox in huddle with us.
Joe, obviously the other team from our neck of the woods, the Auburn Tigers.
Is there a team anywhere with more impressive wins in some ways, but more embarrassing losses,
which puts them squarely right there on that big B word, the bubble.
Your thoughts, what's realistic about Auburn in this tournament, short of winning the title?
I think they really need two wins to feel good about where they're at come selection Sunday.
Not that they'll feel great, but I think they need to take care of business in Mississippi State,
which shouldn't be too much of a challenge, although don't tell Josh Hubbard that.
And then Tennessee.
Tennessee would be the big one.
And surely there could be a little drama with the chance to knock Bruce Pearl's son
out of the tournament for the Tennessee Vols.
I'm sure there's no strong feelings there.
So that's one to keep an eye on for Thursday, certainly.
Joe, let me ask you about Tennessee.
They lost to Vandy in Knoxville for the first time since 2017.
I know Amen is reportedly coming back.
Jacoby Gillespie did not have a great game against Vandy.
Amari Evans stepped up.
He played really well, scored 24 points.
Tennessee fans realize this time of the year, they kind of hold the breath because they keep
wondering when the offensive issues are going to crop up again.
Joe, your thoughts on Tennessee, Rick Barnes going into the tournament.
So here's my wild thought on Tennessee.
The last I saw, Joe Lenardi had Tennessee as the last number five seed.
So maybe what you do is you tell, Amen, take another week.
Don't worry about it.
We'll go out here without you.
If you were to lose to Auburn again, I think Auburn probably gets into the tournament, which
is obviously not a bad thing for the SEC.
It also gives you a nice long week to rest to get him back to 100%.
And it probably bumps you to a six seed.
And I think you are a thousand times more likely to succeed as a six in the tournament.
I agree.
So there's my moment of conspiracy theory.
If Amen sits and Tennessee looks kind of disinterested and Auburn gets a big win, you heard it here
first.
Now, probably none of those things will happen, but they all could happen and they would all
make sense.
Getting that number five seed is like getting a big old box at Christmas and you open it
up and it's full of copperheads.
It's not always the best deal.
Joe, your thoughts as far as the postseason awards, how good is Acuff out of Arkansas?
If you, in your opinion, if he's a player of the year, how good is this kid given the stiff
competition across the league?
Yeah, I think he probably is.
And I think he's earned it.
What I can say for him is he fits into that legion of top Calipari freshman point guards
with Derrick Rose, with John Wall.
So those are some big names.
He belongs in that list with those guys.
He's going to be playing at the next level for a long, long time and probably very, very
well.
And there's always a part of me that's sorry, we're only going to see him in the SEC for
one year.
But it's been an amazing year.
And that young man certainly has met every expectation I had for him and surpassed most
of them.
Joe, Texas, 18 and 13, 99.
They did beat Alabama and Tuscaloosa what seems like two years ago.
A lot of the prognosticators think that Texas needs a couple of wins in Nashville to stay off
the bubble.
And I still think Sean Miller is one of the best coaches in the league.
Joe, what does Texas need to do in Nashville?
Well, they definitely need to not lose to Ole Miss on Wednesday.
That would be a serious problem.
I think one win would probably be enough.
But yeah, they're definitely breathing easier if they could take down Georgia on Thursday.
I think they're undoubtedly safe then.
Beat Ole Miss and lose to Georgia.
And yeah, it could get a little more dicey on Sunday than you would like.
But I think they're probably in pretty good shape.
And I don't think they're going to lose to Ole Miss.
Of course, you guys know how it's been for me this year.
I said that.
So, you know, hammer the Rebels in your betting appropriately because they're probably a lock
now.
Two things.
How many teams from the SEC get in the tournament Sunday afternoon?
And number two, where can we get your SEC baseball, Palmer rankings, and all the other good stuff?
I'm going to answer backwards.
It's Saturday down south.
We got the hoops.
We got the baseball.
We got a little bit of everything.
Now, the number of teams you forced me to pick right now.
You tell me I've got to make the call.
I'm going to say 10.
I think Auburn's just short.
But again, we laid out the path for them.
It's there.
It's doable.
I think Texas is in, and they're the 10th one.
And that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Or as Greg Sanky would say, he wants 17 teams from the SEC to make it right, Joe.
Right.
Yeah.
No doubt.
Listen, man, have a great week.
Thank you so much for your time today.
All right.
You guys take care.
Thank you, bud.
Joe Cox, Vine columnist, Saturday down south.
Coming up to the heart of Florida to Orlando, we go with Matt Michelle on Dank.
Stay with us.
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The score.
In the SEC basketball tournament tomorrow, Auburn is set to take on Mississippi State.
Alabama's the two-seed.
They'll play Friday in the quarterfinals.
The Troy men's basketball team won the Sunbelt Championship yesterday.
As Troy defeated Georgia Southern in Pensacola, Florida 77-61.
The Trojans are on to the NCAA tournament.
Troy women's basketball team fell in the Sunbelt Championship to James Madison 69-52.
Troy is now 25-7 on the season.
Baseball action today.
North Alabama will take out Jacksonville State.
The Lions are 7-9 on the season.
Alabama will host Troy.
The Troy Trojans are 6-9.
Alabama is 14-3.
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The score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
The score.
Welcome back, Ken.
What do you say?
We're going down to the heart of the Sunshine State.
And say hello to Matt Merchelle.
Checking in from Orlando.
Because he's busy at the Orlando Center.
Matt Merchelle, welcome in.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you guys doing today?
Hey, buddy.
Talking to a man who's talking to the big shot of college basketball's March Madness.
Correct us if we're wrong, Matt.
But you're not too far in the distance there.
On a conference call with the brains of ESPN's bractologist, Joe Lenardi.
What did he tell you, Matt, about any surprises with the upcoming dance?
Not really.
I think, you know, one of the things he stressed was that, you know, this is the time of year
where, you know, expect the unexpected.
You know, there can be some teams that are going to surprise some people and are going
to maybe, you know, knock someone out of their, you know, their possible bid or their possible
seeding or maybe, you know, burst a bubble here or there.
You know, he said two years ago they had five, you know, bid stealers, as he called them,
you know, and teams that came in and won in their, you know, mid-major tournaments and
knocked some other teams out or even teams in the power four that knocked some teams out.
So, you know, he said he's expected to see some of that a little bit this year.
So, I think that's something that we're expecting over this next week as we kind of get down to
the conference tournaments and everything that's going on.
You know, Matt, the word as far as the conference tournaments over the last few years is teams.
Basically, does it really matter?
Because it looks like, whether this is true or not, the observation, I'll put it that way,
is that the committees pretty much made up their minds before they announced it on Sunday.
But do they?
The other side of that coin is we talked with Bruce Marshall out in Vegas earlier today.
He talked about, in the case of Alabama, either a three or a four seed.
You say, well, what's the difference?
Well, if you're a three seed, there's a good chance that they're going to give you a more favorable
geographic location, making it easier for your fans to travel to and give you that, if you will,
the six-man advantage.
Your thoughts just about how some of these teams who know they're in it,
we know the bubble teams are playing for their lives,
but there's still some strategy with these teams who want to get a higher seed
because they want to keep it as close to home cuts as possible.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
I mean, there's a lot on the line here.
I mean, just because, let's say, you're a team that's in your conference tournament
and you're expected to win, let's say, in the SEC.
You're one of the three, four, five, six, whatever teams
that are pretty much locked to get in the NCAA tournament.
It doesn't mean you don't want to try to go as far as you can.
You know, these games matter.
You would like to get to a point where you don't have to travel nearly as far
or your fan base doesn't have to travel nearly as far.
I mean, there's nothing worse than you're an East Coast team
and somehow you wind up in Portland.
You know what I mean?
And you have to go all across the country to play a game.
It's tough on the team.
It's tough on your fan base.
You know, it can be really challenging.
You know, so you'd like to have a good spot.
Good example is Florida.
You're in our state.
You know, Florida is the number one seed going into the, you know,
probably going to be a number one seed going into the tournament, you know,
depending on what happens this week.
But they would like to stay close to home.
So they're in Tampa.
You know, pretty much Tampa seems to be a lot.
Because they'd like to be just down the road for themselves.
It's very important for a lot of these teams to make their statement.
It's not just about wins and losses.
It's about trying to get themselves ready to maybe move up a little bit
and maybe help their seeding so they've got a chance to play in a better spot,
much like, as you mentioned, with Alabama.
You follow Central Florida.
They're in the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.
In fact, they play tomorrow against the winner of Cincinnati and Utah.
You know this league well, Arizona, who basically they received a commitment
from Caleb Holt, a top five player earlier today.
I wanted to ask you, their reports, again, it's scuttlebutt right now,
maybe two coaching vacancies in the Big 12 next year.
Bobby Hurley has not had a good year.
Dan's brother at UConn.
He's at Arizona State.
There are reports that he may not be, quote, welcome back.
And the other one is more interesting to me, Bill Self.
He's had health issues the last three years at Kansas,
and there's a good bit of scuttlebutt that he may be retiring at the end of the year
because of health issues.
Will there be two vacancies in the Big 12 next year?
I think there will be.
Now, I'm not 100% sure on the Bill Self stuff.
I think that's obviously something that's out there,
and I think Bill is probably thinking very hard about what he wants to do.
But I look around.
There are some other teams in the Big 12 that might have some coaching vacancies.
You look at Miller at Cincinnati.
Cincinnati has not played up to the potential that a lot of people thought they would.
They have a really high and have paid a lot of money on their roster.
You know, there's been some scuttle that he might be a guy that could be out.
You know, you look at UCF, the team I'm covering.
You know what I mean?
If UCF was figured to be an NCAA tournament team midway through the season,
they've lost three games going into the Big 12 tournament,
and they lose on Wednesday.
I mean, there's a possibility they get knocked out of the tournament.
There'll be a lot of pressure maybe to make a change at UCF.
So there could be multiple teams, and it wouldn't shock me
because I think a lot of schools, as we've found over the last three or four years,
they want to win now.
That's a win-now mentality, and you want to bring in a coach
and hope maybe they can find a way to the light of fire spark somebody,
especially if you have, you know, some of the type of budgets that these schools have now
when it comes to building their rosters.
You know, whoever, if Bill Self does leave, whoever takes its place
is going to inherit a pretty good program that's invested a lot of money into its players.
So I think this is a league that has a lot of attraction
and would be something that a lot of coaches would be very interested in making their career
if they could find a way over here.
Matt, Michelle is checking in with the Orlando Sentinel.
Matt, I think it's pretty much conventional wisdom, safe bet, that comes Sunday
at the SEC Championship game.
Your neighbor's just to your north there, and Gainesville will be there.
The Florida Gators, correct us if we're wrong in your observation about that.
The question is, who will the Gators be playing for all the marbles if the script holds?
Well, that's a good question.
You know, I think a lot of teams feel like they're going to be the thing.
I think Alabama, the one team you mentioned earlier, has got a good chance of making a run.
They would love to see themselves in there.
I'm still looking to see, I mean, I'd love to see some sort of surprise team making in there.
I'm not sure if that's going to happen this year, you know what I mean?
Florida's played so well, and I don't know if it really matters.
It's, they're one of those teams that has just jumped out and has played at the next level
that you just were kind of surprised to see at.
So, you know, I think it's going to be a challenge, whoever gets in that spot.
I mean, I like Alabama.
I like the way Alabama's played.
I think they've got a chance to make a good run.
You know, I think you're going to also see a team like Vanderbilt as a hot shooting team.
If they get going well, especially long distance, they can find a way to shoot their way into it.
And then, you know, you've got Arkansas.
You know, I mean, I don't know John Gallipari's had his moments this season,
but, you know, Arkansas has looked good at times.
So, I think whoever's going to get in there, they're going to find themselves facing a really,
a team in Florida that really wants to finish this thing off right.
They're not just going in there with the idea of coasting through the SEC tournament
just to prepare for the NCAA tournament.
I think they want to get another SEC championship.
How long did it take Florida fans to say, this Todd Golden guy is pretty good, Matt?
Well, I think they know he's pretty good.
In fact, if you go back to those Bill Stolfer rumors.
Yeah, and going back to those Bill Stolfer rumors, there was a rumor that, you know,
Todd Golden may be his replacement.
You know what I mean?
I remember that.
That Kansas would come hard at Todd Golden.
Now, I don't know if Todd Golden would take that, you know, would leave to take that job,
especially if Florida, he leads Florida to another national title.
I mean, I think, you know, he'd want to stick around, but you never know.
You never know how much money can be thrown at a coach.
You never know what kind of challenge can be presented.
And so, it's going to be one of those deals.
I think Florida fans would love to believe that he's not going to leave,
and he's going to be at Florida for a while.
But, you know, I just think when you're a young coach, opportunity is about.
I mean, I think you look around and think, where am I going to have the next challenge?
You know, if he wins another title this year, and you've got two,
you may look around and think, okay, well, I'm, you know,
maybe I want to try to do this somewhere else.
Maybe I want to see if I can, you know, turn another program around.
So, it just kind of depends on what's going on.
The top four seeds in the Big 12 shock, Arizona 1, Houston 2, Kansas 3, Texas Tech 4.
And I'm sure the reasoning is, well, who's going to be playing Arizona on Saturday afternoon?
Who do you think would be playing Arizona, or who do you think will be in the finals?
Well, I mean, I've been asked who I think is going to win the Big 12,
and I think it's going to be Arizona.
I think Tommy Lloyd's done an amazing job in Arizona to get them to where they're at.
You know, Kansas has been up and down to me.
I like Texas Tech for a while there because, again, you know,
but they've lost one of their star players.
So, it's been kind of a challenge for them, you know,
and that's been kind of a challenge for them.
But I think Texas Tech overall has one of the better teams.
And I think that, you know, it's really going to come down to is, you know,
who can find a way to kind of knock off the Wildcats.
You know, again, we talked about Florida being kind of dominant.
Arizona has done a really good job.
I think they've done a job of adding size.
They've got some good shooting as well.
So, I like Texas Tech kind of going in there maybe to meet them as well.
But we'll see what happens.
Much like in football with the Big 12,
there's a lot of good teams that can find their way into the middle.
Matt, we can't think of a better person to ask this question than you.
We are in North Alabama,
and one of the hottest kids to ever come out of high school basketball
played over at Buckhorn High School.
And if you go to Buckhorn, you'll never find cactus in the backyard there.
Your thoughts about a guy who starts out in North Madison County
and he's on his way to Arizona, a heck of a recruiting job
because I'm telling you, if this kid lives up to his billing,
he's going to be something special for Arizona.
But you never connect Buckhorn High School with Arizona.
Your thoughts about the big news and the big pickup of Arizona with Caleb Holt today?
Well, I think, you know, that just goes, as I mentioned with Tommy Lloyd,
I think that just goes back to the ability to recruit and identify talent.
You know, nowadays, people think, you know, it comes down to the transfer portal.
You know, who are you going to grab?
Who are you going to find?
But sometimes, I still think high school recruiting is very important.
I think if you can identify talent and bring them in
and have them be able to step in and emerge and help out.
And Arizona is a perfect place for that, you know,
where you've got an opportunity, you've got ability.
You know, it's a program that spends money,
so there are going to add some pieces around there.
But there are going to be players that are going to be back.
I think a lot of that core team is going to be back next year.
So, yeah, you take a player and you add them in there like that.
And I think that's just only going to help develop.
You know, it's only going to help and allow them to give opportunities.
The challenge is, especially at the high school level,
is, you know, just keeping those players satisfied.
You know, a guy comes to play for one year,
is he going to stick around for two or three more years?
You know, I mean, well, it's not certain.
So you have to kind of see what's going on there.
So I think it was a good move.
I think Arizona's got themselves a good player.
And I think I'm interested to see how they kind of grow from that next year.
Listen, everybody's got basketball on the brain now.
But I saw one of your tweets to where you talked to Central Florida Coach Scott Frost,
who's in his second tenure at Central Florida.
And you said it is much different than it was 15 minutes ago, 15, 15 months ago.
And I bet it is.
I bet he's a lot more comfortable in his second year.
Very much.
I sat in his office, and he was so relaxed.
I made a joke about it with him, you know, about the idea of having a little bit of, you know, relaxation.
And when he first got back to UCF last year, you know, he, this is a guy who had been out of coaching for three years,
had really never dealt with the, you know, the transfer portal, multiple transfer portal window,
never really dealt with NIL to the extent that it's going on right now,
had no, had never dealt with revenue share, and all of a sudden kind of got thrown into this mix
and had a roster that essentially he had to rebuild.
He had brought in 70 newcomers.
So he was always felt like he had his head on the swivel.
He was always running around, you know, busy, busy, busy, trying to, you know, take care of things.
He tells a story that when he, after his introductory press conference,
he walked back to his office, and there were two players ready there to meet him,
and they both wanted more money.
And he said, I didn't even know who these players were.
I didn't even know their names.
He's like, you know, I don't know who these guys are.
They want money.
And he's like, I don't know what to tell these guys.
So, you know, and so it goes to show you that, you know, you get a year under your belt,
you add some pieces, they added a new general manager.
Now that's kind of being taken care of at a different level, so he doesn't have to do it himself.
I think that just takes a lot of stress off him.
And I think now that he's able to focus on building a team the right way
and try to find a way to kind of find the success on the field
rather than have to worry about all the off-the-field stuff.
Welcome back to Big Time College Football, Scott.
Listen, you're very busy.
Thank you for taking the time out because I know you're covering UCF.
How will you cover the Big 12 tournament this week?
Well, I'm going to do it remotely.
We could, you know, again, we're at the newspaper business is not flourishing, obviously.
Yeah, I understand.
You know, we couldn't go to the conference tournament, but I'm covering remotely with the hope
that if they get into the NCAA tournament that I'll travel, you know, to the NCAA tournament games.
But, you know, it's fun.
I spent this week, I did a feature on the last time UCF had a team in the NCAA tournament was 2018-19.
And so I talked to some of the players from that team.
They faced number one Duke in the second-round game that was lost on a missed tip-in at the buzzer.
And so, you know, I talked to a lot of those players about that each season and things like that.
So you kind of have to think a little bit outside the box when it comes to coverage.
If they want to get that coverage, where can you take us, my friend?
They can go to OrlandoSentinel.com to find out all the latest, or they can follow me on social media at OSMattMichel.
Sounds great.
Listen, man, have a great week.
It's here, tourney time, March Madness, about to light the fuse.
Kick back and enjoy, Matt.
All right.
Thanks a lot, guys.
Take care.
Thank you, man.
MattMichel, the Orlando Sentinel.
Coming up, we don't have to wait.
Tomorrow, obviously, the SEC tournament tonight, the Coastal Championship game and the West Coast Conference
Championship game, it all starts pregame 545 tonight here on 93.9 The Score.
And are you ready for some SEC action coming up tomorrow, BB, in Nashville?
Well, Harold, it does.
And it still amazes me to say the opening game is the Kentucky Wildcats gulf against LSU.
Kentucky fans are not happy right now.
Yeah.
Whole new meaning to blue faces and blue moods in the big blue nation.
That's going to be fun.
Nashville going to give you the very latest.
But in the meantime, on behalf of BB, Greg James Blair, the entire crew here.
Harold Bugg, thank you so much for your time today.
Let's do it again tomorrow at noon to two for the BIMO Bug Show back here on Sports Radio
93.9 The Score.