Hey, everyone. March is finally here. Let's go ahead and talk about the North Carolina Tar Heels. UN C being a number one seed. How can they make the final four mark? Bergen. The floor is yours, Luis Fernandez. Good to see you and you gotta be taking solace as a Tar Heels fan to know that in the 21st century, your beloved Tar Heels haven't had a season where they've gotten the trifecta and here's what I mean by the trifecta regular season, conference title tournament, conference title, national championships and cutting down the net in early April final four will be in Arizona is the ultimate goal. So maybe NC State did the Tar Heels a favor. Let's say you Luis Fernandez. This is kind of my mindset going into the NCAA tournament. So two things are true, right? Um In recent memory, maybe all time, Un C has not won an NCAA title the same year. They've won an AC C title. Um And UN C also has tremendous success reaching, I wanna say the final 49 of the past 14 times, they've been a number one seed. So those are two very good things that UN C has working for them combined with the fact that they are also very balanced. Um, the tar heels are in a good position, but like so much with the NCAA tournament mark, it's all about your region. It's all about how the bracket lays up for you. And so let's go ahead and just kind of take a look, go bit by bit here. We'll start with the first game. They're playing a 16 seed. No. Oh yeah, don't worry about 16 seeds. But hey, you know, Virginia and Purdue have both lost as one seeds to 16 seeds over the past few years. So it is something to watch out for. They'll be facing either Howard or Wagner Wagner not buying it, not buying it. And here's why Howard wins the mi A two games above 500. Wagner is one game above 500 they have like seven healthy players on the entire roster. So I go back to that trifecta Lewis 57 and 82 for the tar heels when they got the trifecta. Again, the silver lining is mentally, you reset after the lost NC state of how can we get right when we need to. But a 16 seed upsetting the tar heels this year, I'm telling you right now. I'm not gonna, I would bet my mortgage on it. It ain't gonna happen, Louis, it's not gonna happen. Let's freeze your, let's hope, you know, freezing cold. Take yourself um, you know, I know, I don't think, I don't think it's gonna happen either. Obviously. I mean, it's, you know, one seeds are, they do what they do against 16 seeds. Um, let's go and move on to what the round of 32 would look like. Now, when you want to talk about one seeds and potential pitfalls, that round of 32 is where you really start to see some of the trip up start to happen with those 89 matchups, especially uh UN C would be facing in the round of 32. MS U which MS U you ask Mississippi State as an eight seed or Michigan State as a nine seed, both present some interesting problems. You want to talk about Mississippi State first mark. Sure Bulldogs inside, outside combo, Tolu Smith and Josh Hubbard. Uh Smith gets double teamed in the post and then Hubbard can light it up from the outside more than 100 3 point field goals from the outside. So those are the two that you have to stop from the standpoint at least offensively with the Mississippi State bulldogs. Yeah. And, and as for Michigan State, um they are interesting because they're one of these teams that uh the when you watch and when you look at the numbers, things don't necessarily match up, right? We if you watch Triangle and two, you know that I love numbers, you know, that I enjoy analytics. Uh Michigan State is 18th in Ken Pal. They ranked number 18 overall, which is fascinating. Their defense is very good. They play a very slow methodical pace. You do worry about Tom Izzo in March. Um You know, those things always seem to go together well, but maybe not winning national championships per se, but making runs with teams you may not expect. Um, so those like our concerns that you have with Michigan State, the thing is though, they really ended the season very poorly. Um, you know, they, you go, I'm just gonna run through some of the schedule here. They lose to Purdue in, uh, the big 10 tournament. Ok. No problem. They win their first game against Minnesota, but then you go back to the regular season, they lost 123, they lost four of their last five games in the season. Um, you know, they, they play a very slow methodical pace with a lot of defense and what that does is it results in a lot of close games, close games, you can win close games, you can lose. Um, you know, I don't, I don't know, it, it's two different styles. It is. I think what you and t would be facing in the second round should, um, you know, assuming they, they win that first round game. So, um, not exactly the hardest I'd say 89 matchup they could be facing but not an easy one either. Tyson Walker, AJ Hoggard, both senior players, uh your two leading scorers on this Michigan State team. So there's veteran leadership there. Uh Walker also a very good defender, almost two steals a game as well. And then Hoggard, it's not just the assist, the team's leading passer, a 3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. So protecting the ball when you have that senior leadership Lewis, it, it's like late in the tournament, we get mesmerized by, oh, this guy could be an NBA prospect, but they have familiarity, not just playing together, but just a lot of game experience at this point in their respective college careers. Now, let's continue this path a little bit mark here if they were to say, win against that 89 seed, if you just go by chalk, which it's not always the case, you know, they'd be facing the winner of most likely a four or five type situation. Um The, the two highest seeds in their region in that section they could be facing would be a Saint Mary's or an Alabama. I know a lot of people have, are picking Grand Canyon or leaning towards Grand Canyon. Charleston is also a dangerous team. So there's a lot that they can do there. But let's just for this purpose, focus on what could be the highest matchup they face in that situation. That would be Alabama who we saw be, you know, incredibly successful last year in the regular season, uh stumbling eventually to uh San Diego State in the NCAA tournament, this Alabama Crimson Tide team, a lot of offense, not a whole lot of defense. Um, and, and you, you look at like their shot charts, right? They're one of these teams that really leans into this notion of what modern basketball has become where you have the, what is the most efficient best shot? You can take a lot of threes, a lot of, um, just attacking the paint in general. So it's like their shot chart is like all right here or all like around the outside. Um And it's worked for them. They have really good offense. Their defense though is a little bit suspect. Uh What, what are your thoughts of Alabama pace in space? Almost 91 points per game, highest scoring team in the country? Fourth most three point attempts. But the opening round match up against Charleston College of Charleston. They're the only team that's attempted more threes than he of BYU is up there too for most attempted threes. But so it's just like you live by the three, you die by the three and that could propel Alabama to say get to a sweet 16 run could also cost them in the first round. I don't know what to expect. But in terms of style of play in playing fast, if it is Alabama, that's the type of style of play you should expect. But again, uh their first round match up against the College of Charleston. They play the exact same way. So you fight fire with fire if you will. Lewis Fernandez, I think Mark either, either way when you look at the possible sweet 16 matchups that UN C defense is going to have to continue to be the strength of what the targets, you know, when they have lost. We've seen that defense not come to play. Um So that defense is going to be critical. Now, what was the most intriguing from storyline perspective here? Should everything be chalk? Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on to Elite Eight before. I'm sorry, I'm getting excited talking about what that could be. Honestly, we should have led the pod with this match up with the elite eight. But sophomore guard Saint Mary's Aiden Mahany Giles have a six and one record when he scores 20 or more points in a game. So he goes as his team goes with Saint Mary's, uh keep an eye on the Giles as well, but let's get to the, am I mispronouncing it? I'm pretty sure it's the saint like the gales, I think, listen, listen regardless. Team six and one when he scores 20 or more. Le Saint Mary's is always one of those teams that like every year I'm like, oh, I could, I could see them, I could see them doing something. I don't know, I don't know if this recent memory or just in general, but I, I don't think Saint Mary's has really been able to string together multiple wins in the NCAA tournament. Um, so, I mean, but they, they got to get over the hump eventually. Um, coming out of the Western conference, we, we see Gonzaga, you know, do so well. Um, over there at ST Mary's has been right with them, maybe not competing at the highest level, but still being a good team. Um, let me, let me tee you up. Ok. Me up, me, up, me up. When you saw this yesterday, the UN C was the final number one seed and we knew even before the selection committee officially announced it on the selection Sunday show that it was gonna be UN C as a one seed in the West region against Arizona and former Tar heels guard Caleb Love. I see the twinkle in your eye. Luis Fernandez. I want to know all of your thoughts about this potential matchup in the elite eight. My first thought was the selection committee trying to say, oh, yeah, you know, we don't, we don't focus on storyline, we don't do this and that. Ok? Ok. I'm calling you on that. I, I'm calling your bluff on that one selection committee. Um No, but I mean, it's, it's dramatic. I mean, like, II I always, whenever we talk about Caleb Love, I always like to preface it like this. Like Caleb Love. What he accomplished at UN C I think is, you know, incredible. Right. They were seconds away from winning a national championship with them gave him some incredible moments. The, the beating Coach K at Cameron were in his final game there and then of course, the final four, the shot um that essentially gave them that win um in the final four, like amazing moments and I think both UN C and Caleb Love are better off for, were separating the way they did. Right. K Love was Pac 12 player of the year and, and Un C being a number one. So you've seen RJ Davis become AC C player of the year. Sometimes just like styles don't work together. And that's OK. That's totally fine. That being said this would be television, this would be cinema. It would be so much fun to be to see UN C and Arizona meet um in the elite eight. I, I don't know if it's necessarily gonna happen, but if it does end up happening, it would be uh a lot of fun. We saw Arizona beat Duke and Cameron already this year. So we know that they compete well against like some of the teams that UN C is facing, which tar heels player would guard love defensively Lewis. Um gosh, I mean, it probably would be, I mean, I guess it kind of depends, right? You probably have some kind of combination of I I you wouldn't really want RJ on him. Um And whenever Seth tr in the game, I assume Seth would kind of be guarding him probably like, kind of a, a team approach as to how, as to how you guard him. There's, I don't think it's gonna be, you're, you're thinking of like something like dramatically one on one type situations, aren't you always, always, always trying to lean into the, the drama. Mark. I love it. What, what are your thoughts of? You didn't answer the question? I don't know. I don't know for sure. Listen, when, when it was, when Duke and, and Arizona were playing, um it was a combination of, I think it was mostly Tyrese Proctor who was on, on Caleb Love. But I mean, you know, it's that, that's not really with the, you know, Un C's backcourt is a little undersized. So I don't know if you match up like one on one type thing with either him or Elliott Cao or something that I ask that question too is, I mean, obviously Davis and Cao are good solid defenders, but love's got size on both of them and then love is a prolific score. He's his team's leading scorer at Arizona. He was the tar heels leading scorer the last two years. So if you put a player like a Cormac Ryan, maybe, maybe you go more size and say Harrison Ingram, that's your match up there. That's probably what I would do is start Ingram on him and then go from there. You're, you're gonna need team defense essentially, which is what UN C has been able to do so well this year, right? Like we've seen Armando Bacot doing really well in switches being able to play on the perimeter defensively. Um I don't know, it, it's gonna be fascinating um if it ends up happening, but uh both teams have to win, what, three games just to get to that point. So you, you, you never know what's gonna happen. Baycot and Umar Balo as well. The center for Arizona, he's 7 ft tall, big, big dude, second leading scorer on Arizona 13 points a game averages more than 10 rebounds a game as well. Well, so the, the big men battling down low would also be a lot of fun to watch in this matchup. I want to mention one of the thing about Arizona, the 15 seed Long Beach State in the first round. Uh Long Beach State's head coach, Dan Monson guided his team to the NCAA tournament, found out that he was going to lose his job. They weren't going to renew his contract which expires at the end of the year. So they're riding out and playing for this coach where they don't know who the coach is gonna be next year. And then Monson was the guy who got Arizona head coach, Tommy Lloyd his start in a coaching position at Gonzaga all the way back in 2000. So that first round matchup, uh Long Beach state in Arizona. I've got my eyes on just given the history of the two coaches there. I like it something to keep, something to keep a watch for, for Sher Mark Bergen. If, if it's not Arizona Lewis before we wrap this up of how North Carolina can make a run to the final four if it's not Arizona. Which other team do you think that UN C could go against in an elite eight matchup? Well, it's interesting. So that, that section of the West region has some teams that always make you kind of go like, hm, when you look at them, right, like New Mexico, I think is really fun. Um You know, they've kind of put that entire state on their back with the success that they've had. Um and, and New Mexico kind of surprises me when you look at just statistically what they've done so far this year, right? Um 41st in adjusted offense and 23rd in adjusted defense, which would rank them 23rd in K in total, right? Just, and, and they're an 11 seed just to just for, so for some examples, like the teams that are right around that frame, you've got like some five seeds, some nine seeds. So New Mexico, I think is one of those teams that a lot of people are gonna be paying attention to if you're looking for upsets. Um So maybe you get a situation where like they make a deep run in the sweet 16 or something like that. Um, you know, you mentioned Long Beach State, we have had a couple of two or 15, 2 upsets over the past few years. I, I don't know if Arizona last year. Well, I mean, the Saint Peter's right. Like, you know, doing the run that they did. There, there are a lot of t, I don't, of all the two seeds. I don't know if Arizona would necessarily be the two seed I would pick to lose early. Um, but it's gonna be interesting, um Nevada fortitude to do that. I say that, you know, I think that's fair. I think Nevada also is an intriguing higher seed in that region. But I mean, Baylor, you know, Big 12 has been very good this year. One of those teams once again, that is offensively, very good, defensively, not as good, but plays with a very fast tempo. Uh Clemson stumbled into the postseason a little bit so I don't know if I necessarily see the, the Tigers going super far. Um It's honestly Arizona, I think has got a really good shot there in that part of the region when you look at, I'm with you. I'll mention Baylor who's got two projected draft picks in Jacoby Walker, Ives. Missy is well, very good three point shooting team in Baylor, top five in the country from deep and then also Dayton as well, 6 ft 10 forward named Duron Holmes the second and they use him out of the high post to set up the offense. Find cutters, use him in screen roll action, uh, handoff action. He's surrounded by a lot of very good shooters at Dayton. So those are the other two teams that I would make mention of outside of New Mexico who knew Lewis. I, I'm excited that in Mexico, man, I tell you what. Um All right. And if UN C takes care of all that conquers Caleb Love and the Arizona Wildcats, um they would be in the final four and from there. Who knows what would happen? Mark? I think that the tar heels have a pretty good shot in all honesty. I mean, I don't think it'll be easy by any stretch of the imagination. I am rooting for that. Caleb Love. Arizona matchup in the elite eight game though, like you said, Luis Fernandez Cinema Cinema.