The Ryen Russillo Podcast
The Lack of Upsets and the State of College Hoops With P.J. Carlesimo, Plus, New Red Sox 3B Alex Bregman.
Tue, 25 Mar 2025
Russillo is joined by P.J. Carlesimo to share his favorite Sweet 16 teams, break down the distinct play styles of different conferences, and examine how much the transfer portal has affected the tournament (0:29). Then, Alex Bregman comes on to reveal his thoughts on changing teams, what the offseason process was like, and what he expects out of his first season with the Red Sox (37:03). Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (59:44)! How do I handle my wife constantly lying on Reddit? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: P.J. Carlesimo and Alex Bregman Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the top Sweet 16 teams this year?
On today's episode of the podcast, we get up close with Alex Bregman, the newest third baseman of the Boston Red Sox, what his offseason was like, patience, the whole deal. We're going to talk tournament, we're going to do some Big E story, of course, Louis Carneseco with our guy PJ Carlissimo, and life advice from
We're going to talk now with one of our favorite guests, a man that understands the tournament, former Seton Hall head coach and now part of the ESPN and NCAA tournament broadcast, PJ Carlissimo. What's up, man? It's good to see you.
Good to be with you, brother. This is, uh, you know, we, we both did time at ESPN. This is the nicest thing they do for me. They let me go for three weeks to do the, uh, the tournament every year for Westwood one. And it gives me my college fix. I love it. Uh, I had been doing PAC 12 tournament.
It seems like for six, eight, 10 years, I don't even know, but obviously this year they put me back into big East, which was kind of, kind of fun being back in the garden. I hadn't been at the big East tournament in a long time, but, uh, I lucked out. We got Seattle the first round, so it was a home game. Now we got San Francisco, the West Region before, and San Antonio.
There's enough places I've been fired.
Let's start with kind of just a general question here. Now that we're at the field of 16, is there – Is it Duke? Is it Florida for you? Is it Houston? Do you have the team that you go, you know what, I actually think it's them, and I don't know if much of that has changed since the start of the tournament.
I thought for a lot of the year, I actually thought it was Auburn. I hadn't seen them in person, which is all, you know, again, I don't see as many in person. And it's hard. It's different. I don't I don't know why, but it's just different sitting there seeing the quickness, seeing a team. And like, you know, I came out of the Big East tournament feeling I really knew those teams.
I had watched a lot of games before going in. I thought it was Auburn early. Then they kind of slid. I haven't seen Duke much, but like kind of the consensus and people I talk to, most people feel it's Duke's to lose. Like if Duke plays that, that they're, they're good enough to win the whole thing. Florida has really come on. Everybody's talking about them right now.
Danny Hurley, my old buddy, had them on the ropes. I actually thought UConn was going to get them. They played so well, but I'm anxious to see Todd. I've known Todd for a long time. He was at Columbia. He was assistant at USF, Todd Golden. But I'll tell you what, we were with Maryland for four days here in Seattle. Maryland's very, very good. They're very solid. They play both ends of the floor.
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Chapter 2: How has the transfer portal changed college basketball?
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It's Alex Bregman who joins us now. So look, let's start with this. It's new. This is a new thing for you. The Astros have been home for a long time. So what's this like being with a new club?
No, it's, it's definitely different, but it's been great.
Just first and foremost, when I got there, just trying to get, get to know all the guys and get to know everybody's name and kind of get to find out a little bit about everybody and kind of what makes them go and what makes them, what makes them tick, you know, and trying to learn, learn my teammates, learn the coaches, learn the front office and, kind of learn everybody in the organization.
And once I've been fortunate enough to get to know all these guys, it's been awesome. It's been a great time. I think everybody is the right mindset. Everybody's motivated, ready to compete this year. And we got one more exhibition game and then it's go time.
I love reading spring training stuff because it's like the best possible scenario of any every team. Like you read everything and it's incredibly positive. But the stuff about your club, you know, it's been like these guys have really connected. So I want to ask you kind of like about your role because your resume is great.
You've been in the playoffs every year that you were in the bigs full season on. Right. So eight straight years of being in the playoffs. And you come in and you're like, I guess I'm kind of this vet now who's this established dude with this resume, but I'm also like the new guy. So how do you figure out like what's asked of you as somebody with your resume, but also realizing like,
I don't want to just come here and pretend like I'm in charge now either.
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Chapter 3: What is it like for Alex Bregman joining the Red Sox?
I got to read this book. If it's going to keep coming up, I have to read the book. I watched the movie. I feel like you got a pretty good grasp on the movie, but if it's going to continue to come up, I think I got to get on it.
I honestly don't know that you can do movie book on this one. And I know everybody says like, read the book.
Oh, I just, I just screwed it up.
Some people say the book is better. So are you going to have a better experience reading second?
Yeah, but don't you think you now have the imagery from the movie as you'll read the words? So you're not creating when you're reading the book, you're creating these visuals in your head because you have nothing else to go on. And if you've watched the movie first. that's just going to replace like you're going to be reading it.
It's like I'll be thinking of a different color of gray for the outside.
Well, yeah, well, true. There's a lot of gray.
I read it. Well said, Kyle. Thanks. I read all the Lord of the Rings books after I saw the movies and I actually thought it was a I personally I like the experience. Here we go. Here we go. Only because there was just like Tom Bombadil like this guy isn't even the freaking movie and he's like this incredible character in the books. He's like this mysterious guy in the woods.
uh that they don't even talk about really so i don't i think it can go both ways depending on your personality oh i thought you were going to be like i thought the movies were way better no no i wouldn't no i'm not okay okay there'll be no lord of the rings i also have seen the movie the road and not read the book so i'm in the same camp as you kyle people hated the movie okay the movie did not i thought the movie was awesome but no i know i didn't read the book uh the kid is annoying in the movie
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Chapter 4: What was Alex Bregman's offseason like?
Let's see it.
And then guess what happens? I have seven more versions of the thing that I don't like. And at least I think I was able to figure out why I was getting more of the thing that I didn't like.
but then when people complain about it it's like you started this your whole thing so when it used to just be and you can click back and i swear to god when you go on the following tab for it it pushes you back to the for you like two days later it used to default before you too which was nuts right right and then they're like all right we can't be this bad okay so back back to this email because i don't know that we're doing uh much justice here for our guy uh
I don't think it's an invasion of privacy necessarily. She shared it with you. It's obviously a bit of a mistake on her part. And now you know something that she has no idea that you know about. So that's going to be really tough. It sounds like you get along with your wife. You didn't mention any other things.
It sounds like you have a great disposition that you're able to see your wife complaining about you on some public forum. Again, where nobody's going to know it's your wife. We're going to know that it's you. And you've handled it like a champ. Like that's not even the premise or the main concern of your email here.
So I, you know, look at a very short access to like where your head is at with this. Like, I actually think you deserve a lot of credit.
Yeah.
I don't think I handled it that well. Yeah. Like I'm blown away by that part of it. So it sounds like she found a keeper and you were like, yeah, I started complaining about me on this podcast. But whatever, that's not a big deal. So the problem is, if you were ever confront her on this, like it's going to send her in a spiral.
Like, I don't know how long that spiral lasts, but that's going to shake you up.
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Chapter 7: What expectations does Alex Bregman have for his new role?
in the class that you should always watch the movie first before read the book. And we were just like, what are you talking about? But I think, again, his life was... you know, whatever level of dedication it was. But I mean, the guy was a film professor. So, you know, it kind of gets back to like, yeah, what, like, where are your interests aligned? Like, this is your opinion.
Yeah.
Yeah. Let me know more about like what you're in. There's like, of course you want this to be, I think we should get more sec teams in weird.
Uh, so yeah, I would never, I personally would never, I don't even want to watch trailers, you know, I don't want, and I don't want to know about, you know, uh, anything as far as the story, but then I guess you could argue, well, if you don't even want to watch a trailer for a movie, why would you want to read the book ahead of time? I don't know.
Uh, the book is a lot better than the movie there. So yeah, I don't know why your, your brother said that, but we can't help him. It's a strike, but that wouldn't decide.
I got a little vacation coming up. I think I'm going to grab the road.
Far worse, far worse to criticize RJ Lewis. Where? Right. Okay. All right. Let's get to one. My wife lives on Reddit. Please don't use name. Okay. No problem, man. Six foot one, 195 player comp, slower, wider, less aggressive. Steve Blake, wider than Steve Blake. Sorry in advance for the lengthy email. It's always great when everybody does that. This is like literally two sentences in a paragraph.
It's been weighing on my mind for months. I would love everyone's take. My wife constantly lies on Reddit. I don't know what my wife's screen time is, but she spends several hours a day on Reddit. I don't have Reddit, nor do I fully understand it, but she will send me some comments from other people on shows that we watch that are funny, et cetera.
A few months ago, we were sitting next to each other, and I happened to glance over at her, and she was on Reddit with her username in big, bold letters at the top. Months later, she sent me something from someone with a funny username. I asked her, If her username was clever, she said, no, mine is blank. She told me a different name than what it actually is.
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