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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back. You're on the program here on Sports Radio 810 WHB as we broadcast live here in Brookside. We're at the Barrio, Brookside Barrio, 6227 Brookside Plaza. If you're looking to GPS the location, the Barrio, of course, coastal Mexican using fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to create truly. Unique dishes. Try their shrimp tacos with fresh mango salsa.
Kebabs with a cilantro chimichurri if you're low-carbing it like this guy is. House-made empanadas with a poblano cream sauce. How about the burrito tacos? Slow-roasted brisket melt in a crispy corn tortilla with a chipotle jus and au jus dipping. Voted best chips in town as well with the chili lime seasoning.
Of course, Barrio still offers all the traditional Mexican favorite dishes, burritos, enchiladas, chimichangas. You've got it. If you want to go full bore, go full bore. Each location has an awesome open-air concept with an indoor-outdoor feel featured with overhead doors, large patios. Brookside's patio has been going strong for eight years.
Don't forget, happy hour two to six, Monday through Thursday. They open that at one on Fridays at Extra time on Fridays. Perfect spot for a Royals or Chiefs game with all their TVs indoors and out locally owned and operated. Check them out online at barriokc.com. That's barriokc.com. Of course, for Cinco de Mayo, we've got the great beer bucket specials.
Get the Corona, Corona light, Corona premiere bucket specials right now. Margarita and sangria specials, shot specials. Plus they're doing live entertainment. Come on out. Cinco de Mayo is happening right now at the Barrio 6227 Brookside Plaza. We'll talk some college basketball.
KU recruiting, Mizzou recruiting, K-State recruiting, how Casey Alexander is putting everything together there with the Cats. First chance to talk about that with Gary Parrish and, of course, the expansion of the field to 76. We welcome the best in the business, our college basketball insider from CBS Sports. Gary Parrish joins us in the program. Gary, how are you, sir? Wonderful. How are you?
Doing very good. Doing very good. I want to dive into the field of 76 because I don't want to, you know, not get into this. You and Matt Norland are very passionate about this subject on the Eye on College Basketball podcast, of course, where you can hear Gary Parish. You can also see him on the CBS Sports Network and, of course, read him at CBSSports.com. Money is the reason this is happening.
I understand that everybody would like to go back to 64. I don't understand why people get so passionate about not wanting to go beyond 68. The perfect 64 is already busted. And and I and I like for me, it's like, OK, more college basketball on games that are, you know, win or go home against teams that will be of equal ability.
I mean, I to me, I'm I'm in favor of expansion because I think it's inevitable. So let's get to it. Let's get to the point. We need to do it and do it right. Why am I wrong?
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of tournament expansion in college basketball?
that's a Saturday and Sunday thing, but this Tuesday and Wednesday, because of the expanded bracket, you're going to have to play these games earlier. So we're going to have daytime basketball in a time of the year where people get excited about daytime basketball. So, and then, you know, some of these are going to be power conference brands. Like they're not going to be good basketball teams.
We don't have to lie to each other, but they're going to be big brands that have fans and alums. And so, yeah, people are going to pay more attention to it. I think the, The part that the detractors really point to, and this is where I would agree with them, is that we have adjusted our minds to what a quote-unquote NCAA tournament at-large team looks like.
And we're going to have to adjust to what that looks like. Right now, it is kind of understood, outside of a place like Kentucky or North Carolina, where the standards are so high, If you're like at a middle of the pack cap power for basketball program and you go to the NCAA tournament, you're not at risk of losing your job. You're probably getting a contract extension for the most part.
We are now going to be living in a world where at the exact same time, Joe Lenardi or any other bracketologist is telling us on television that this power for school is on the right side of the bubble, like last four in and,
that same school will have fans that are on message boards trying to figure out who their next coach is going to be because they're so disappointed that their team is this bad. But that this bad team is going to end up in the NCAA tournament. That's the part that I think people don't like. But once we get to that Tuesday, Wednesday, to your point, we're just going to be playing basketball games.
And at that point, it'll just look like basketball.
Are the teams that are on the outside of the bubble since these conferences have expanded, do we have a stronger Mountain West and the leagues that used to provide two and three teams, Missouri Valley? If we hadn't had this consolidation, would those teams be in because they would be winning games?
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Chapter 3: How does Gary Parrish view the move from 64 to 76 teams?
other leagues right like would you know tcu be second in the mountain west and you know and in easy as opposed to sweating it out on the bubble like is this just a market correction for the fact that the conferences have consolidated yeah like a hundred percent that's what it is like you know it's always interesting to like look who really wants this who started this conversation
It wasn't the commissioner of the Southland Conference. It wasn't the commissioner of the Missouri Valley, in fairness, because nobody will listen to them anyway. But it's Greg Sankey. It's the Big Ten commissioner. It's the biggest and wealthiest and most powerful league that wanted more tables in the restaurant, more seats at the table. Why? Well, it's about the middle of those leagues.
It's not even about the tip top or the trash bottom. It's about the middle. In other words, let's think of this in the Big 12. I'll let you say it since you live there. What is a total middle of the pack Big 12 men's basketball program? You name it. You know, probably TCU. Okay, perfect. So TCU is in the Big 12, and it's at a certain place in the Big 12.
You get college basketball people, and every year they say, hey, rate Big 12 jobs or Big 12 programs, and TCU lands wherever it lands. Well, it lands at a different place once you bring Arizona into the league, once it brings Houston into the league. You get pushed down where you're supposed to finish in the league that you've been a member of. And so now ā
Chapter 4: What are the financial motivations behind tournament expansion?
What you used to have to do to make the NCAA tournament is obviously tougher, not necessarily because your coach is any worse or your program is any worse, but because your league decided to bring in programs that start at a better place than you and are better positioned to succeed than you. So now you're lower in the picking order.
Well, you're still trying to achieve all the same things you were trying to achieve before. Your fans still expect you to achieve all the things you were achieving before. But it's harder now because you're in your league. You're taking losses you otherwise wouldn't take.
Well, how can you still fix it where maybe you end up in the place you were always wanting to end up anyway, the NCAA tournament? Create more tables in a restaurant. Think of it like that. It's a restaurant with tables. How do you get more people in that restaurant so they can feel like they accomplished something? Put more tables in the restaurant, more chairs at the table.
That is what we've done, and it is not ā do not ever let anybody tell you this. It's not to give more opportunities to the quote-unquote little guys. Some little guys will get more opportunities just by definition, but that's not the motivation here. The motivation is to get the middle of the pack, SEC and Big 10 and Big 12 and ACC programs, a better opportunity to play in March Madness.
And I don't like that. And I think if you're a TCU and you left a Mountain West that you could have won easier and probably had an easier path into the NCAA tournament because you could have played one or two non-con games and then beat up on your league. and you've taken the bigger payday, well then, okay, take your bigger payday, but now you've lessened your chance to move on.
I mean, I think that's what schools have done in football, and that's why they're now expanding the football playoffs to try to get those schools back in that now are taking on more losses in a tougher conference. I get all that. And I would love for the little guys to get more access. In fact, my dream is to allow the conference champion ā and the tournament champion automatic bids.
And if that team is one and the same, then great. There's one more extra bid for the at-larges. We looked it up. If you employ that system, there were 11 schools that would have been added to the tournament this year, right? And we know they're not going to back out the at-larges from the big leagues. So...
I can think about what I want, what I think would be fair, and having more of the little schools in there. But we know they're not going to do that. We know the big boys rule the roost. So let's try to placate them, and then let's try to get more for the little schools. That, to me, is expanding. Now, listen, I'm going to upset you. I think the goal, the next step to get to is 96.
OK, no one wants to go to 96. But if we added I think, listen, you had 12 teams. I've got the 11 teams that should get there. It's the conference champions that didn't win their conference tournament. But those would all be little schools. So they're not going to do it. So to me, we should at least be at 80. I don't get the 76.
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Chapter 5: How does expansion affect the competitive landscape of college basketball?
We're going to expand, expand however you want. But I think the future is 96 with 64 on Tuesday and Wednesday and then 64 on Thursday and Friday as people begin to wear down their. their anger and frustration of the expansion. At that point, you can get all the conference champions and you can get all the tournament champions. That's the caveat that gives Cinderella more hope.
And by the way, it's clear these big leagues need Cinderella or they would have busted out and created their own tournament, right? They want the little guys. They just want most of the spots. So let's, let's do both. Let's, let's expand bigger and move forward. You touched on a lot of interesting stuff there.
Let me try to take it point by point in whatever order. Do you have a Netflix subscription? Yes. Okay. Do you know what it is right now? Do you know what you pay a month? Frankly, no. I think it's about $18. Okay. I have no idea either, all right? And this is what they do. They send you an email every eight months or however. Don't quote me on this, but this is the strategy.
They send you an email, and they say, we're raising our prices from $16 a month to $18 a month. And you go, oh, man, okay, whatever. Well, you know, I still like watching Monday Night Raw. So, you know, it's only $2 a month. That's like half a cup of coffee at Starbucks, no big deal. And then eight months later, they're going to get you to $20. Next thing you know, you're paying $30 or whatever.
They've doubled it, but they've done it in little increments where ā it wasn't enough at any point to make you blink. But if you look up eventually, it's way different than what it used to be. That is what they're going to do with the NCAA tournament. They're going to do it in small, small numbers so that you go, I don't like this, but it'll be fine. I don't like this, but we'll be okay.
And eventually you'll look up and the thing that you would have said, this is not okay. Because it'll take them three steps to get there. You'll say it's okay every single time, but then you'll look up eventually and you're at the number you're talking about. So that's where we're going. In terms of how would I like it?
I like your idea, but like you acknowledged, that's just not the way this is going to go because they're not creating more spots. for the little guys. They're happy to have the little guys involved, but they do not want to make this better for them. They want to make it better for the power four, specifically the SEC and the Big Ten.
So my compromise would be, all right, let's go to whatever number you want to go to. But every automatic qualifier is in the 64-team bracket Thursday, Friday they're playing. They don't have to play into the main bracket.
They get seated wherever they're seated on Thursday, Friday, and all of the extra at-large bids, they're the ones duking it out on Tuesday, Wednesday to try to get into the main bracket. In other words, that's where you would have ā the below-average Big 12 team against the below-average SEC team for the right to play into the main bracket on Thursday or Friday.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications for mid-major teams in an expanded tournament?
But to your initial point, we'll get there in increments, and that makes it a little easier to digest.
Would the powers that be like it more if they said, okay, here, little guys, we're giving you more entries, and here, big guys, we're going to go all the way to 96? I know you said they do it a little bit, little bit, little bit. Would it be easier to rip the Band-Aid off? Well, here's the thing. I get your Netflix. Sorry to interrupt you.
I get your Netflix comparison, but in this one, if the goal is to serve everybody, to tell the power leagues, you're going to get all your teams that are basically above 500 in right now, and we serve these little guys, but just a handful of them. Like I said, this year, 11 of them. But meanwhile, we're bringing up the field.
you know, an additional, what, 28 schools, so you guys are still getting 17 of them. Would that be an easier sell?
It would possibly be, but the problem becomes, and I say this as somebody who works for a television network, at some point you get television networks involved, and here's the truth. They don't want the little guys playing like that. They would much rather have the big brand from the Big Ten, whatever their record is, playing on Thursday, Friday than St. Peter's or High Point.
And so this thing that might sound attractive to you and I as basketball fans, Television networks are trying to get eyeballs on television screens. And the way to do that is to have as many big brands as you can have playing in what we consider the main part of the bracket. So there's a lot of people involved in these conversations, trying to serve a lot of different masters, if you will.
And it's why every solution is met with a roadblock somewhere.
Absolutely, and listen, there's no greater example than the NFL television, the NFL network schedule that sales suits run programming, and they don't know what they're doing because we often get these god-awful matchups that they can't see. Even the NBA. Stop putting the Warriors on all the time on national TV.
I love Steph Curry, and I'll watch to watch Steph Curry shoot, but there is nothing compelling about the Warriors. They're a tired-ass old team. That sucks, and yet they're on all the time, right? And so there are so many more exciting, like we should add, you should see over the horizon. See, look at all this young talent around Victor Weminyama. Boy, these Spurs are going to be great.
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Chapter 7: How does Casey Alexander's recruiting strategy impact K-State's future?
If he says he knows he needs to be better and he wants to be, I'm going to take that at face value because I don't really know the young man. I've been around him a little bit. I have no reason to doubt him. I'll take his words as sincere, but I also know, and this is even true in my own life,
I sincerely hope sometimes that I would handle this situation a little differently or that situation a little differently. And it can still sometimes be a struggle for me. I see it with my own kids. I've seen it with basketball players. There was a young man who, when I was a Memphis beat writer at the Commercial Appeal newspaper, who came to Memphis from New Jersey. His name was Sean Banks.
He was a five-star-like prospect. but a very troubled young man had had a rough upbringing. It was well-documented. And he came to Memphis. And the truth is, this was at a time where John Calipari was recruiting. Like he knew he needed to recruit five-star talent, but he knew he couldn't go recruit a young person who was, you know, you're not going to beat Duke.
for a kid if you're recruiting from Memphis. So you kind of had to find somebody that maybe was a little rough around the edges. And that's how Sean Banks ends up at Memphis. Anyway, long story, not so long. I sit down with him as the beat writer. And when I sit down with him, he was awesome. He said all the right things. He knew he had made mistakes. He knew he had been around the wrong people.
He knew he had made poor decisions, but now he was ready to like be a new person and, and change his ways and, and start fresh. And that lasted about a year. By the middle of his sophomore year, he had flunked out of school, gone back to New Jersey. The last I heard, he was in prison, like doing real federal prison time. And so this stuff can be difficult sometimes.
And I hope that this is a good story. But up until this point, there's been some bumps along the way that make people sort of a little... less sure that, that, that this is going to go smoothly.
All right. Missouri has an excellent freshman class and they seem to have done well in the portal. They don't crack your top 25 and one where they close.
Like the closest. Like, you know, I wish to God I did a top 25 in three. If so, only Missouri fans would stop tweeting me every day. And I want to be clear, like, I love it. I love the passion. But I do have a working order that I work off of. I literally wake up every morning and I go, okay, did anything happen while I was sleeping that I missed?
I update it every minute that anything happens and I have a working order and then I cut it off at 26. And I believe at some point, we're up to version 14 right now, which is just ridiculous. But at some point in the version, Missouri was in there and then got bumped out by other developments. But I don't have the list right in front of me at this point.
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Chapter 8: What challenges do top recruits like Tyron Stokes face?
It doesn't exist. It's not the Big 12. It's not the Pac-12. It's not the NCAA tournament at 64. Every other decision they make, They don't hold on to tradition. They don't hold on to anything we care about. They do what's best for them. And that's why, even though Norlander might be right, this is the thing they might not could have done.
If I'm on the other side of that argument, I'm scared that they really might pull the trigger because they always pull the trigger in favor of themselves. So to answer your question more directly, I hope not. I hope we never get that, but I can tell you it's been talked about for a long time, and it will forever hang above the sport as a possibility.
All right, what are we going to get for NBA Finals? Who beats who in the NBA Finals?
Thunder beat Knicks, I think, and I think I just told you the two favorites in the East and West, but... The East is sort of wide open, but the Knicks are, I think, the best option there. And the Thunder are just on a different planet. I mean, they're missing their second-best player right now, and they're still so clearly the best team in the NBA. They could lose their second.
They could be the Jordan Bulls without Scottie Pippen, but still winning the championships one after another, no problem. That's maybe what we're looking at right now with Oklahoma City at full strength. I don't think anybody can touch him except for maybe San Antonio with Wimby if they just get real special. But even without Jalen Williams for the time being, they're just on a different level.
That's an awesome basketball thing.
Yeah, it does feel like if the Spurs can right the ship and they already lost the first game to the Timberwolves, that maybe they could be a threat. But I'm with you. I had Oklahoma City over Celtics to start it, so... The East looks vulnerable, but no one looks like they're getting near Oklahoma City this year.
All right, and finally, the most expensive roster in college basketball will be how much by your best estimate? I bring this up because, you know, $7 million was thrown around about the Stokes number. I asked some folks, I said, Stokes get $7 million? And they're like, no, no, the number's less than that. I said, how much? They said less than that. I said 6.9, 6.8. So they don't...
They want to be clear it's not seven, but they're not ā they clearly, in my opinion, have some embarrassment about how much the number is. So what is the highest roster going to be in college basketball do you expect next year?
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