Riff Ram Review
Episode 24: TCU Baseball Disappoints in Stillwater, March Madness is in Full Gear and the MLB is Back!
(upbeat music) - Welcome to Riff Ram Review, your TCU Sports Talk Home right here on 88.7 K TCU. Here are your hosts, Seth Dowdle, Ian Capitian, and Zion Trammer. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 24 of Riff Ram Review, right here on 88.7 K TCU, the choice, your choice for college radio. I'm Zion Trammer, and once again, I'm joined by Ian Capitian and Seth Dowdle here on this Monday, guys. How are we doing today? - Yeah, no, so far so good. Today's Monday, you know, kind of the start of a slightly shorter and abbreviated week with Easter coming up. So Friday's gonna be off, but still staying busy, but the weather here today was really nice. So that kind of helped me like get out of bed and start my week off on a better note, so. - Yeah, it's kind of weird to have an Easter and spring break so close to one another. I feel like there's usually a bit more of a break between because we just had a week off and now we're gonna have like a, essentially almost a four day weekend, so I'm looking forward to that. In fact, that is the only thing I'm looking forward to because that means that I don't have to do school and that's a very fun thing. - It is, always nice, always nice. So yeah, we got a lot to talk about today. We're gonna start things off with TCU baseball. It's getting a little more difficult with the way things have gone recently for the Horn Frogs. They started off on a high note this week. Last week they beat UT Arlington and then Oklahoma State on Friday, but then lost six to two and then six to three on Saturday and Sunday, once again, losing another big 12 series and they're now two and seven in conference play. Things are not looking good for the Horn Frogs right now. What would you guys say was your biggest takeaway, the biggest problem that went wrong for TCU this past weekend? - The offense just simply just was not good enough. There's like loads of stats to just like look at and they're so scary to look at about this offense because of the lack of production. It was just all over the board this weekend in terms of all over the board, not it was good and bad, it was just bad. All the way starting from Friday, fortunately TCU got the win. That was obviously all on the back of Peyton Tully who had that complete game shut out 128 pitches and 15 strikeouts through Friday night's game, but TCU won one to nothing that day, lost six to two on Saturday and then six to three on Sunday. So overall you put up six runs and three games against the third worst team in the big 12 and it's just not enough. And I mean, the new polls came out today and TCU is now unranked. I think it's totally warranted the way TCU's been playing over the last couple of weeks, so. - Yeah, the offense certainly a problem. I mean, they don't get that win on Friday if Peyton Tully doesn't exist because they had two hits in that game. I mean, there was a timing yesterday where they had eight hits over the entirety of the weekend. Obviously they got a bit more offensive production, but obviously not enough losing two out of three. Just frankly, you go into that stadium too and you expect that there's gonna be some offensive fireworks too. We've seen a lot of high run production, not just from TCU and Oklahoma State, but from any team that kind of enters still water. It was a very windy all weekend as well. You speak from experience on Saturday, Oklahoma State hit a ball that was not hit very hard and it literally flew almost 500 feet. It felt like because the wind just caught it. And even TCU couldn't even take advantage of that. So it was really just a lackluster offense performance. The pitching for the most part wasn't great either, other than Peyton Tully. It was pretty mediocre as how I would describe it. It wasn't bad. It wasn't like super great either. But all of that is less important than the offense, you know, not showing up. Yeah, it was, I think the biggest kind of concern, and one of the biggest concerns after this weekend, at least for me personally, was not seeing improvements. I think that's the thing. It's not like this team is going to wake up one day and all of a sudden every one of those switches that's off right now is gonna be turned on and everything's gonna go back to the way it was. When TCU was 13 to no or 14 to no, whatever it was. But it's, especially with Cole Klecker start on Saturday, it was very frustrating to see that he hasn't really improved since his first start this season. And it was talked about a lot leading up to this season, how big he's gonna have to be for this team. Yes, he is only a sophomore, but he's got that kind of veteran status on the team. And again, he's throwing lots of strikes, his off-speed pitches and breaking balls. Some of those are breaking, a lot of them are not breaking, or if they're breaking, they're staying high and up in the zone, and people are, you know, and batters are getting to it. He's giving up home runs left and right. He gave up that three run shot on Saturday, and that kind of made it real tough for TCU to even have any shot at coming back, because if you go down for nothing to start the game, then the entire game you're gonna be having to fight against that four run deficit and trying to swing and get guys on base, and then slowly and slowly, you become more and more desperate. So I think it's also just the lack of improvement that we've seen from this team, 'cause I feel like, yes, they started bad in conference play, but it's only gotten worse and worse without even bright spots here and there. - It felt like on Friday, even though the offense didn't produce much, you would hope that things would kind of rebound and you could get a little bit of a confidence boost, because they haven't started off on the right foot in conference play, and you finally pick up a win, and you hope that that carries over, but yeah, it didn't at all. And for Cole Klecker, he's giving up seven home runs this season. That was kind of a problem last year, and since that Arizona State game, he hasn't gone more than five and a third zinnings, so it's not really good when your Saturday starter isn't making it deep into ball games, and that's something that hopefully can get fixed soon, but we just haven't seen it yet. - Yeah, it just kind of begs the question of like, what is this, I mean, is the rotation gonna remain the same again? Well, this is kind of a question I've had every weekend, it feels like, because there's always been at least one dude who's kind of had a big question mark next to their name, and now it feels like it might be him, 'cause Peyton's totally certainly not going anywhere, I think he's proven over the last three weeks that he is the Friday starter. He's certainly built on all of his starts so far, and he's rounded in a form, I think that is very obvious. But Saturday and Sunday are kind of up in the air. I liked what I saw at a Lewis Rodriguez in the brief, you know, anything in a third that we got to see out of him, because the lightning delays shortened to his outing, so I think that he'll probably make his way into the rotation at some point in the next coming weeks, make possibly even this next week, but what do they do, especially with kind of a shorter, you know, time in between week and series here, but the series starting on Thursday. Yeah, it's, again, just like you guys have been saying, the frustration also is that things aren't going well for the hitting side, but also the pitching side. It's not like there's one that's, hey, you know what, if there's a consistent, it's been this side of the game. Both sides pitching in, hitting has just been frustrating. I was telling Seth yesterday when we were doing our post-game show, it just feels a bit like, like TC right now is a boat with lots of holes in the bottom of it, and the minute you try to patch one, another hole opens up, and then you try to patch that one as well, and then another one pops up, and it's, and those holes are coming out because of the sheer inconsistency from this team, and frankly, the only thing that is consistent is the team's inconsistency both on hitting and pitching. I mean, this weekend, here's a couple nuggets for you, and, you know, take this for what you will, but TC's offense went 11 for 93 this weekend. That's a batting average of 118. They had 11 hits, scored six runs in three games, drew only seven walks, drew four walks on Friday, three on Sunday. They struck out 39 times and left 20 guys on base, 39 strikeouts in three days, 12 on Friday, 14 on Saturday, and 13 strikeouts on Sunday. It's, I mean, it just feels like this team has absolutely no answers for any sort of pitching that they face. Doesn't even matter if the pitch is struggling. It really feels like just these TCU batters right now are not seeing the ball well. It doesn't seem like they have a lot of confidence, and even when they do get those occasional walks, at least this weekend, or those occasional hits, 'cause there are only seven walks and 11 hits this weekend, you still can't even string together hits and try to generate something. That was the biggest thing earlier on this season was, once we saw those signs that TCU couldn't really score tons of runs, that they were still manufacturing those runs by, you know, ground outs or pushing guys over and situational hitting was there for a little bit, but now I feel like all of it's gone out the window, 'cause even on Friday, even though you got that one nothing window, the sacrifice fly in foul territory that got you the one run, one of your five runs on the weekend, and that was the one run that got you a win, so, yeah. - Yeah, and then Brian Holiday for Oklahoma State, after totally through a complete game, Brian Holiday is complete game, four hits, two earned runs, no walks, 14 strikeouts, and I think another thing too with the offense is if one or two guys are struggling, you can kind of move them around in the lineup and, you know, have the other guys pick you up, but at this point is making it, I mean, where do you adjust the lineup at all? Like, what do you do because everyone's in a slump, so it almost is like, if you move one guy up, is that really gonna make much of a difference? I think Logan Maxwell let off on Sunday. Is that something we could see moving forward? - Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something that we've seen already a little bit of, but, and that's also the thing is like, I don't want it to be like, hey, if shot knee goes over four or, you know, or if you enter Sunday's game just without any hits, then we're gonna move them out of the lead-off spot, 'cause then I feel like that also messes with the player, but we saw that it worked a little bit the last weekend against Oklahoma when Logan Maxwell let off on Sunday, and it was kind of nice, I think, to allow shot knee to see more pitches, and so, you know, 'cause when you're the lead-off hitter, obviously you guys know this, but you kind of take the pitches at first glance, and then you're the one that kind of reports back to the team, you're the first person that gets to see most of the pitchers from the pitcher, and you kind of say, all right, this is what his slider looks like, hey, this is what his fastball is kind of like if it runs in, right, and so, maybe that's what they're trying to do with shot knee, but just like you said, Zion, when everyone's in a slump, when everyone's in a funk, I mean, moving the lineup is only gonna do so much because everyone still struggles. - It's a weird anomaly. It doesn't feel like this happens very often in baseball. Like I feel like you see like three dudes, maybe four dudes, which is a good chunk of the lineup, you know, struggle, but it feels like every, I mean, there's probably like 11 guys that are rotating into this lineup at any given weekend. Every single one of them is, I mean, they do not know what is going on up there, and it is certainly, I don't know if it's on their end, or if it's this college-wide adjustment that has been made by the conference, it's certainly baffling, and I don't really have a finger on my pulse of why it's happening because it just happened like in a blink of an eye. They're one weekend, we were lighting up the scoreboard, the next, they couldn't score against Kansas. - Yeah, it's really hit TCU a bit like a freight train. I mean, it was all the way up until the Sunday game on March 3rd against USC, again, TCU put up nine runs on that Friday against USC 11 against Arizona State on Saturday, and then nine against the Trojans on Sunday. Then after that, they won four to nothing against Abling Christian, and then that's one big 12. Conference play started in, I mean, it's not even like you're playing the toughest opponents here either. You had Kansas away, you had Oklahoma at home, and then Oklahoma State, it's only gonna get tougher from here, you know, or it's at least gonna stay at the same level, but yeah, it's hit this team completely from like, it's hit the team from its blind side, and the team hasn't even been able to kind of get up and grab a drink of water and just seem like it's been refreshed. And I'm hoping this week, as we kind of look ahead now, to Houston coming into town on Thursday, I'm hoping that not having a midweek game on Tuesday will just maybe allow the team to, hey, we don't have to worry about a quick turnaround on Tuesday, don't have to worry about using arms or going out there and trying to figure it out again. Take a couple days off, obviously they still got practice, but take these days off and not worry about having to actually play in a game scenario, and just, even if it just means just relax, don't even worry about it for a second until the series starts, so. - That's a good point, it definitely will help, hopefully benefit the team with a couple days off, 'cause yeah, they got a series coming up here with Houston, they've come in struggling as well, they've lost five in a row, they got swept by Kansas State, and it's a young Houston team, and certainly for the horn frogs, you just are praying that this offense can figure itself out and coming up there on Thursday, but yeah, I mean, if there was going to be an adjustment in the rotation, do you guys, where do you guys see that? Do you see that happening this week? - I could see there being a different starter on Thursday, just 'cause I know Starless likes to have the rotation of the right, left, right, or left, right, left, I think Tully will stay on Friday, I think we could see a different picture on Thursday, something like that, at least for the rotation, that's probably about it, to be honest, 'cause you still have to kind of figure out what's been going wrong, you know? - Yeah, and I feel like Kirk is very much not a guy to press the panic button, and I don't think that he's done that, and I don't think, I think that's like a very valid response at the same time, but like from a fan perspective, obviously you're like, "Throw your hands in the air run, "there's a fire in the building for a coach." I feel like it's good to have a level head to the ups and downs, he knows, I mean, this is a baseball season, I feel like we've talked about this a lot, it's like there's gonna be hills, there's gonna be valleys, and for TCU, they hope that this is the low point of the season, that there's only an up from here, and I feel like as a coach, you don't wanna run and scream and hide, that's kind of what, I mean that's what I would be looking for in a head coach, so I don't think he'll make two major of baffling, like changes to where it's like, "Huh, okay." That kind of feels like we're throwing a Hail Mary here. I feel like he's gonna stick with this guys 'cause he trusts his guys. - Yeah, and I agree with that, I think he should, because you wanna have a level head here, you don't, the season's very young, it's, last year's team just kind of went through that slump, it was a little bit later than this point, I believe, and eventually they bounced back, certainly you hope that that'll happen there, but hopefully, what do you guys think, T-S you can take two out of three, hopefully? - You need to, I mean-- - You gotta have to. - You have to, I mean, we say you have to, but there is, obviously they don't have to, right, I mean they could very well lose to the series they could, again, it feels like a coin toss with this team sometimes, and I hate to say that, but it's just been so inconsistent, it really has, but if you want to try to get back on track, again, I think it's, you need to make small adjustments, just like we've been talking about, don't make anything big, you still need to say, "Hey, I trust you guys, I trust this line up." I think the minute that he starts pulling out a couple guys that really should stay where they are, but he just wants to switch things around, that's when you'll then knock the confidence of certain guys, because that's the thing too, it's like confidence is such a big thing in baseball as well, and baseball, it's also very streaky, whether you're a hitter, whether you're the team, if something's working, something's working, and we're not gonna mess with it, even when things aren't working, you gotta be very careful, and it's very touch and go, because that confidence can just drop just like that, and already it's incredibly low, so. - Yeah, one final thing to wrap this up, just to how important games are this year, and for TC to take two out of three, like the kind of reiterate they have to, not every team makes the big 12 tournament this year. You have to be in the top 10 in the conference to make the big 12 tournament, and I know that's very far out, it's not close to that at all, but every win and every loss matters, and so one more series loss just adds another, you know, another percentage of the possibility that TC does not make the big 12 tournament, and I know that that is kind of pressing the panic button a little bit, but that just, you know, goes to show you that this is a little bit different, you're not gonna get in automatically, you gotta earn it, and TC's gotta go, you know, win two out of three, I think I'm in the half two camp of. - You have to. - Yeah, you have to. - Yeah, yeah, 'cause the Horn Frogs have yet to win a big 12 series, they find themselves at the bottom of the big 12 standings, Houston currently ninth, so some big implications, potentially coming up this Easter weekend for TC baseball, the game one will be on Thursday at 6pm at Lupton, and game two will be Friday at 630, and then Saturday at 2pm, but we're gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about TC men's and women's basketball, and how they did in the postseason, right here on Riffram Review. - I'm Paul George of the Indiana Pacers. 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This message brought to you by the American Institute of CPAs on the Ad Council. - Hey, KTCU listeners. Jeff here with you just wanted to let everybody know that it's easier than ever to listen to KTCU when you're at home. If you want to listen to KTCU, it's as simple as asking Alexa. Hey, Alexa, play KTCU. - A choice from tuning. (upbeat music) - You see, it's just that simple. Ask Alexa and you shall receive KTCU in your home on your Alexa device. ♪ So first off I hate ♪ ♪ The lights cut through lips like a Japanese knife ♪ (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Rifferam Review right here on 88.7, the choice, your choice for college radio. I mean, the patient joined alongside Zion Trammel and Seth Doutle. As we move away from TCU baseball, now we're gonna get into some of the nitty gritty with TCU men's and women's basketball after they've both finished off their post-season runs. Unfortunately, both coming a little earlier than maybe fans or the programs would have wanted, but still very happy with how the women's season did. And for TCU men's basketball, a lot to look forward to next year. But kind of starting with TCU, this last weekend, TCU men's basketball took on Utah State. That game was on Friday, gosh, a nine o'clock tip that actually ended up being around 9.30. Have you guys ever had to sit through a game that was like that late? - I mean, yeah, I'm an ALS baseball fan, so that's true. And they're done that, but it was very much like, okay, TCU, what are we doing? This is three years in a row that this has happened. - Second to last game on the slate for the first round. - I mean, I stayed up for it, so it wasn't past my bedtime just yet, so I wish I didn't though. - I know, unfortunately, the frogs, they lost 88 to 72 to the number 20 Utah State Aggies on Friday night. That game taught me through it. You guys at least just briefly, what were your guys' expectations going into the game and maybe the tournament? And what did you guys kind of take away from the loss and kind of now that the season's over? - Well, the end of the season was a little unfortunate with things for TCU. And I was not setting expectations too high coming into the tournament. I was just kind of happy they were there. I was hoping they would beat Utah State and then give them their best shot at Purdue. But Utah State's a really good basketball team. It's not like we lost to a bad team. Utah State finished first in the Mountain West during the regular season. So they have some good players there, and it's just kind of came down to the same things that have kind of hit TCU all season long, struggling with zones and their inability to consistently knock down jump shots and just kind of go into cold stretches. That's kind of what hurt TCU. - Yeah, it was, I've got my notes paging. The two bullets I have, two of the bullets I have is, was shooting the long ball was not sustainable. It worked early on for a little bit, just could not keep it going throughout the game. And I kind of felt like that was a part of the game that TCU got themselves into that they didn't want to get into, at least before tip. But yeah, and then not having an answer for Utah State's one, three, one zone. It just completely took TCU out of it completely. And yeah, it's again, just like you said, Zion. It's been an issue for TCU this year. I'm kind of making those adjustments on the defenses that show up against the frogs. And unfortunately, they couldn't make adjustments this time around either. - Yeah, and the issue, and this has always been the issue, this was never a new thing, was when you, the way they like to play, like to play in transition, they like to play fast, but if you can't stop people, then like that is mute and void. Like you can't do that anymore for the most part. So, and they've always struggled in the half court. And then as you all have said, I'll just reiterate it adjusting on the fly to new things. And then, you know, once Danny Sprinkle and Utah State were like, hey, this one, three, one zones really work. And they did not, I think they went man for one possession, gave up a three. And then we're like, okay, we're just gonna go back to one, three, one. I mean, it worked wonders, they could not figure it out, even after halftime. And it was truly remarkable to see them not figure it out. - Yeah, it sucks too, 'cause it's an experienced team. And a lot of these guys are in their fourth, you know, fifth year, some even seven year of college basketball. So, I don't think it just kind of came down to personnel. You didn't have really an elite ball handler, a go-to guy on the offensive end. You know, you get, I guess you could say E-man was that guy and he was very consistent all season long, but we didn't have a Mike Miles, you know, and we didn't have the consistent three-point shooting after, you know, Tennyson kind of hit a brick wall. I mean, it just felt like there wasn't much for him to do if he wasn't able to get open looks from three. They took that away from him. But, you know, it sucks, but I think TCU, they have a really good recruiting class and assuming they're gonna hit the transfer portal hard, you know, there's, you could still be optimistic about the future of TC basketball. - Yeah, and I think that's kind of, you know, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a saving grace of the season 'cause, you know, I mean, you know, it's not like the season was the worst thing it could've been, but obviously there were higher expectations, but that's kind of one nice thing to look forward to for TC men's basketball is that they come into, they go into next year with what's right now, I believe, is the number 11 recruiting class in the nation. And that's the highest it's ever been for TCU. And so that prospect of bringing in guys like that that have kind of been, that are considered to be that high of a recruiting class. Obviously you're losing a lot of veteran talent on this team going into next year, but you've got to be excited about that. And also with having some of the red shirt freshman this year that are going to play next year like Jay Sposey, there's definitely a lot for TCU to build upon. And you kind of just have to stay positive, but there's still, you know, quite a few questions about when and where does this team take that next step, right? - Yeah, I mean, that's the question. I think that I'm going to remain on the optimistic train just 'cause, I mean, I saw it back in the first year, I think I vividly remember watching college basketball like really in depth was 2015. And, I mean, TCU basketball was horrible. And so, and for like the next, you know, couple of years after that they were not great either. So I try to put everything into perspective of like this has been a program that has not been good. And to, you know, we talked about this last week and just how remarkable it is to, you know, make the tournament three years in a row. Obviously you don't want to be complacent with that. And I don't know if, you know, this is, you know, the right direction now, you know, I'm not questioning Jamie Dixon's ability to lead a team because I don't think that, you know, making a move of the head coach is the right move because I frankly don't think that TCU is a very desirable basketball program to, you know, come and coach because it's frankly a program on the rise. And TCU has, you know, has a history of giving coaches time to marinate and build. Jerry Patterson had a long time to build this thing up. And obviously it's two different, you know, scenarios. - Yeah. - And Jim's loss niggle was here for, you know, 25 years. This was, it wasn't a meteoric rise to start him. It took, he took the job in the early 2000s. They made their first college world series in 2010. So that's kind of, you know, where my head is at. I think I'm very optimistic about the recruiting class. I certainly would have liked for them to try to make a second, second weekend run 'cause I'm dying to see a Sweet 16 banner/font on the wall. I don't think we do banners in the show, Meyer, but I'm dying to see that. I hope it comes soon. - I think that's kind of the next step where TCU can move in is the Sweet 16 Elite Eight. But I agree, Seth, there were some fans that were saying that, and this could just be out of anger and frustration that they should fire Jamie Dix. And I have no reason to believe they would ever do that. I don't know why they would. I mean, for a team that's been so bad for so many years and now they're finally getting consistently good seasons, why would you fire the guy that had a large part in that? You know, like, you gotta give it a little more time than that. We're not gonna be all of a sudden just an elite program that's, you know, going far into the, we're not gonna be like Gonzaga overnight or, you know, Kansas or Duke. It takes time and TCU's such a small school and it's not known for basketball. So yeah, I don't understand why anyone would want. Jamie Dix has done a tremendous job. And I trust that he's gonna continue to do that. There's just not, there's not really anyone out there that's like, yep, he is definitely gonna be better. And if he was, there's no guarantee you take the TCU job. So yeah. - Yeah, it's kind of like, obviously TCU's made the tournament for in three consecutive years for the first time in program history, that's great. Now, that doesn't mean you're one of those teams. - Yeah. - It means you're establishing yourself key tense, establishing, you're still doing it. You are not one of those teams that is in it every single year. And so it's not even like, and I feel that TCU has the right to give somebody that short of a leech either. And if that's kind of how you wanna look at it, 'cause it's like, no, TCU still has work to do to become that team. Now, once you've done it for 10, 15 years and this is your program, then yes, I can understand making decisions a little, more harsh decisions like that. But TCU, in my opinion, is in no place to make that sort of decision with Jamie Dixson. - Especially 'cause he went here and he's a legend and he went, and I mean, he hit the frickin' shot against Texas, like they play that video every single time. Like, I mean, it would be, it's not on a level of the Gary Patterson firing slash asking to leave, but it would be a shock for them to do that. Because frankly, as you all have said, it is tremendous what he has done because when he took the job, this was a laughing stock. - Yeah, so TCU obviously now out of March Madness after 88 to 72 lost to Utah State. Utah State went on to play Purdue and lost by 39 points, so 106 to 67. That would've been kind of interesting to see what TCU could've done, but they didn't advance. One team though that did advance to the next round of the WBIT was TCU Women's Basketball after beating North Texas, 67 to 58. They advanced to the second round to play Mississippi State in Starkville. Unfortunately, the Hornfroggs lost that one, 68 to 61. TCU kept it close for a lot of the game, went down by eight to 10 points, came back, but unfortunately, the Women's Basketball season also ends in the same weekend as the men's, but a very different kind of headspace with this Women's Basketball team 'cause this season obviously was just so tremendous in terms of, you go 21 and 12, yes, six and 12 at conference play, you can kind of almost erase that and not even really look at that. You just wanna look at the overall, but just miles better than last year and what this team did, obviously. Great job by Head Coach Mark Campbell to bring in all these transfers and create this team and cultivate this culture, but yeah, unfortunately TCU now out of the WBIT, but still what a fantastic season they had. - Yeah, they really kept it close with Mississippi State. They fired off a 12-0 run to take the lead and they shot the three ball well in the opening in the, you know, but Madison Conner, I think she went, she knocked down like her first three threes and then missed her next eight or something like that. So she kind of hit a slump there, but I think, yeah, it's more important to look ahead. What TCU did, they set so many records. I mean, what best start in program history, most threes made in their program history, best year-to-year turnover, win turnover from last year to this year. - It's a word jungle. - Yeah, it is, it's like, it's some weird, yeah, but most improvement basically within a year and then their first playoff win in five years. So this is going to take time, but it's year one of a difficult process from taking a team that was so bad and looked so bleak to now there's a ton of optimism. It's pretty incredible what Mark Campbell's done. And again, a lot to be excited about here with the future of TCU Women's Basketball. - I thought they were going to win yesterday. I really did. - They came close. - I mean, they were what, they were leading with like two minutes left and then kind of lost. They just kind of looked like they ran out of gas a little bit, Mississippi State obviously ended up with the victory. Certainly would have liked to see them go on a nice low run here. I think they were pretty capable of going pretty far if they advanced, continue to advance. I don't think that that game was an indictment on the quality of the squad. 'Cause obviously we saw them win what? 14 are the first, they're one of their first 14 games, which as you said, Zion is what was it? That's the best starting program history? - I'm pretty sure it is, yeah. - And yeah, so let's do it again next year. - Yeah, seriously, run it back. And as we've talked about in previous episodes of the show, TC's got a lot of the same returning players that are on this team now. And it builds a lot of belief, it builds a lot of that confidence because just like you said, Zion a moment ago, this is the first year of the construction plan, of the plan to rebuild, right? And in year one, it was quite successful. I don't, if someone told any of us that at the end of the season TC would be 21 and 12 and be in the WBIT, it's like, I don't know. I would be like, yeah. I don't know, that's a lot more wins to have to get, maybe focus on just getting as many as last season, but this team did so well. Again, Madison Conner, Sedona Prince, both of them just really leading this team this season. Obviously Jayden and Owens led this team for quite a while up until getting that injured knee for the ACL, but yeah, TC Women's Basketball has a lot to be proud about. And again, it's two very different ends to the season for men's basketball and women's basketball, different kind of circumstances for either team, and both programs are kind of at different spots as well. TCU men's basketball is still trying to establish themselves and build upon this season, which was, you know, I'll say it, you know, definitely underwhelming, especially in big 12 conference play, but then you look over at TC Women's Basketball and Mark Campbell and you're just like, wow, I mean, we couldn't have asked for anything better. So lots to be proud of, lots to look back on and reflect from the season and a lot to look forward to. STCU is going to be getting a lot of players back for the women's team and also for the men's team having the, just one of the top recruiting classes in the country going into next season. So we'll take a break right here, but when we come back, we've got a lot more to talk about about college basketball, and we will dive into March Madness, talking about some of the games that happened, looking ahead to the Sweet 16. Stick right here. You're listening to Refram Review on 88.7, the choice. - What's up, guys? This is TCU Baseball player Curtis Sperin, and you're listening to KTCU, 88.7 FM Fort Worth. Go Frogs. - Aw, you know kids will be kids. - Oh, I don't know why they're trying to make a big deal of it, it's just a harmless rite of passage. - If she didn't want to be picked on, she shouldn't wear that thing on her head. - If he's going to dress that way, he's just asking for the extra attention. - It's just a stage. 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For tips and recipes, visit savethefood.com. Brought to you by NRDC and the ad council. (upbeat rock music) - Welcome back to Reframe Review right here on 88.7. The choice, Zion Trammel, Ian Appetian, and Seth Daddell for you here. Talking about March Madness, the madness begun on Thursday. I mean, technically it was like Wednesday with the Thursday. - Yeah, with the-- - It began on Tuesday, actually. - Tuesday, yeah. I mean, with those, you know, first four. - I was locked into Grambling, Montana State at five, 10 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday. - I was not, but I was locked in for Thursday through Sunday, trying to watch as many games as I possibly could. It was a very comfortable weekend when I wasn't working. I was just watching, you know, watching the madness unfold. And probably the biggest upset and the one that really just shocked me was the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, not from Oakland, California. Let me make that clear, right? I know some people, including my own family, like, wait, what? I'm like, nope, it's not, it's, they're in Rochester, Michigan. And they defeated the number three seed Kentucky Wildcats 80 to 76. And Mr. Jack Golke captured the nation's attention for the 48 hours that his team was in the tournament. This is why this tournament was so beautiful, because teams that no one's ever heard of and people that you've never heard of will become household names for a solid 30 hours. And Jack Golke was, you know, he was, he was as popular as a college basketball player can be over that 48 hour time period. What a game, what a, just a crapper by Kentucky. I mean, Golke, 10 threes, four dribbles. How about that? That's a wild four dribbles. Yeah. You'd only taken like eight two pointers all season long. Yeah, that, that, that stat that I saw on, I saw it on Instagram, I forgot who posted it, but it was probably Bleacher Report, ESPN, something, but it was like the 247 threes attempted and the eight two pointers attempted this season is just ridiculous. I saw a guy who was like, he has like one, like floater slash jump shot in the, like close to the freighter line. It's like, we need a 30 for 30 on this, on this play. On that play alone. Yeah, he is just a straight shooter. He had 30 points, knocked down 10 threes and then he hit six in their loss to NC State. But yeah, what a, what a game though for Oakland and Jack Okey and the Golden Grizzlies, you will not be forgotten. No, I will never forget that. Certainly not a St. Peter's or anything like that, but I mean, they beat Kentucky and certainly we, we're not a Kentucky pod. So we're not gonna, you know, jump into the questions that come out of that, but would y'all pay $33 million to fire a coach? We've talked about this before. Jimbo? Yeah, no, I wouldn't do it. I, yeah, I would, I'll just say a lot, yeah. That's a lot. It is a lot of money. But a lot of concerns over there because they've had a lot of early round exits. And honestly, there wasn't a ton of big upsets. I think we've kind of been spoiled the last few years. We've gotten some crazy upsets, you know, FDU and St. Peter's and Oral Roberts. And this year, we just, we didn't get a ton, but you know what, that's okay. Because the ones that, the big upsets that did happen, we were a lot more, I was a lot more excited for it. Like Yale beating Auburn, are you, what, how does Yale beat Auburn? I can tell you how they do it. They scored two more points than they did than Auburn did. This was, I think this was more surprisingly Kentucky because Auburn was on a heater coming into this tournament. They just won the SEC tournament. I thought that they could do no wrong. But again, Bruce Pearl, thank you. I should have, I should have known that you would put up a stinker 'cause you always do. And they did, I mean, Yale, Yale was like literally a buzzer beater shot against Brown and the Ivy League tournament from not playing in this tournament. And now they will live on forever. But beating Auburn, obviously they lost by 32 days later. Yeah, San Diego State, they got their butt sweat. But yeah, I feel like that was more surprising to me just because of how good I thought Auburn was. I agree, I really thought Auburn was gonna make a deep run given, even with how difficult that side of the bracket is, but they came up short. I think my hot take is this week. And obviously we got, we got some decent upsets. James Madison beat Wisconsin, Grand Canyon, Beat St. Mary's and whatnot. But I think that the lack of upsets, bodes well for a pretty good second weekend here. We got some 'cause there's some good match ups. But before we get into that Zion, any final awesome sauceness from the first weekend. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the big takeaways that I noticed was the really poor shot selection at the end of games. It really, I wrote down like a few where I just was like, whoa, what. FAU at the end of their game against Northwestern, Guy just walks up with eight seconds left and shoots a 30 foot shot. Did you see that one, Seth? I did, he was very much like, he had eight seconds to get, you know, essentially from the baseline to the hoop if he wanted to, which is doable. I can do it. And he was like, alright, we got time. And then he just pulled up from 30 feet. And he missed it. And obviously then they lost by 12 and over time. That was one, the, man, there was another one. Like Samford, I think took a really bad shot with Kansas. After they got screwed, but yeah. They did get screwed, yeah. You know, Texas, even Oakland. I mean, it just, it felt like there were a lot of situations where you're down four and they just go for this crazy heave. And sometimes it works. Like with Florida, I mean, yeah. Let's pull up from 30 feet and knock it down and still lose. But it's like, it's crazy. But yeah, a lot of big weird shots at the end of games. But yeah, to me, I think Florida, Colorado, and then Texas A&M in Houston were the two best games in my opinion. Yeah, I would reiterate that. I think Creighton, Oregon. It kind of had a pooper of an ending. Yeah. But for like, from start to, from the start of regulation to the end of regulation, that game was very, very solid. I mean, there was a lot of blowouts. That was another thing that felt kind of odd. There was a lot of blowouts. And a lot of them were like, OK, going into like the second half, the team that's on the verge of wanting to upset them is kind of close. And then the other team just pulls away and wins by 20 at the end. So that was kind of what kind of made this first week and not as great. It's not that there wasn't a lack of upsets. I'm fine with that. Chalkiness is chalkiness. But the games itself were kind of-- I mean, there were a lot of 15-point wins for teams, which was a little unfortunate. But I think, again, it still bodes well for a good second weekend because there are some really good matchups here, I think. There is a lot of good matchups. And trying to look here, which one catches your eye the most? There are two. First is Houston Duke. I'm really excited to see-- I haven't seen Houston, obviously, is kind of faced some more adversity the last two weekends than I thought they would. I did not think they would lose to Iowa State the way they did in the big 12 championship game. And then having to go to overtime against Texas A&M. And Duke is coming off probably their best performance of the year. I think James Madison is a good basketball team. And they beat him by 40. So there's that one. And then I think the one I'm most intrigued about is Purdue, Gonzaga. I think if Purdue is going to lose, it would be this game. Because I think they're better than Tennessee. And Creighton could beat them, but Creighton's going to shoot the ball well. And if they don't, then they're not going to win. Yeah, Creighton kind of has a lack of depth issue there. But yeah, with Houston, I was just going to say, I've been-- that was such a gutsy win against Texas A&M with how many guys fouled out of that game. Jamal Shedd earned like a ton of respect for me. That dude's a baller. And he is just so-- I mean, he gets the job done. And even when they had their whole team fouled out, they still found a way to close it out against the Texas A&M team who, in both their games, scored 95 points or more. That offense was on fire. And I thought if any one seed was going to lose, it was going to be Houston because of the way Texas A&M's offense was playing. But they held on. But yeah, I'm excited for that Houston Duke game. We get a championship rematch with UConn and SDSU. Yeah, yeah, we do. I think that this UConn team is just so good, though. Holy yeah, they are. But, Sandy-- They are just-- I mean, they're unbelievable, dude. And it's insane. But Sandy, you go statesy, I mean, they're not too shabby. But they did get the easy path to the Sweet 16. They were very fortunate that Auburn put up the clunker because then they were like, they got to coast against Yale, who I don't think posed a threat at all to beat them. There's also Arizona, who has looked very, very good. And I tend not to trust them very much in terms of making it far in the tournament because I don't remember the last time that they made a deep, deeper on. But they get a game against Clemson now because Clemson beat Baylor. That's another thing, the Big 12 did not have a great weekend. They stunk it up. The ACC has easily had the best tournament so far. And putting us to shame. Yeah, Big 12 this weekend, there's not a lot of good representation out here. How the court, unfortunately. Texas Tech looked really bad. We didn't look great. BYU, obviously. BYU looked horrible. It was a rough weekend for the Big 12. I mean, if Houston lost to A&M, that would have been-- it would have made it a disaster. It's not a disaster. And obviously, you know, you can't put a lot of stock into how good a conference is based on a '68 team bracket. And I never do. But it certainly would have been nice to see the dominance that they have in the regular season play out. Because now, I'm looking at this right. It's just Houston that's left. Houston and Iowa state. Yes, because they're taking Illinois. I didn't even see that game. I totally forgot those two teams played this weekend. Because they played games that weren't very close the entire time. Fighting a line, I one time thought it was a Lenny. That's what I thought it was a Lenny. Did I say that on the show or was that somewhere else? I must have said it somewhere else. But I thought it was a Lenny. That's funny. I've never-- yeah. I've always read it. I'm like, that's such a weird name. But we posted our brackets on Instagram. Ian's bracket's not shaping up very well. Ian, explain yourself. Three of your four final four teams. Oh, man, I got a limit to how's going on here. Dude, honestly, I can't even remember who I put in. I know I picked Iowa state to win most of us. Did all three of us say Iowa state? We all picked them to put them. They're on the final. All on the final game. Yeah, all in the championship game. Yeah, what? St. Mary's, oh, man. I was disappointed. At this rate, it's what you expect from St. Mary's to consistently underperform year after year after year. At least when you get to this point. Who else I can just-- yeah. Right? Yeah, I bring Candice. Yeah, that's right. That was kind of dumb on my part. And then, gosh, who's my other team? I think it was Kentucky. Kentucky? That's right. It was Kentucky. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was-- Seth and I were both close to seeing Creighton lose. Oh, we were like, oh, because I didn't have the Creighton believers, and we were-- I was like, oh, my god, oh, here he goes. Well, and then Houston, I picked Houston to win this whole thing. And Houston's an overtime, and I'm sweating it out over there. Yeah, I think every team that I picked to make the final four is still in it, if I'm not mistaken. All of mine are I had Houston, Iowa State, Arizona, and Creighton. I don't think Creighton's going to make it. I just want to see them at least make a decent run. So my points on my ESPN bracket look better. Are you questioning the abilities of Francesco Farabello? No, the sixth man. I am not crushing the sixth man. The sixth man that can also just shoot, like the entire team. Yeah. Yeah, I think I sent the stat to you guys. Creighton sat for 27 seconds. Oh, that's insane. And he went to two over times. Yeah. But yeah, my bracket's looking-- it's not great. No one's is looking great. But I will say this, guys, I made a women's bracket. I did. And I got 15 out of the first 16 games. Oh, very nice. Dude, I had a perfect-- I was like one of 20,000 perfect brackets. I was like, dude, oh my god, I'm just on fire. Did I guess? Which was the one that made it. It was the last game. It was Texas A&M vs. Nebraska. I picked A&M to win in Nebraska 1. Now, I kind of guessed on a lot of them. But, you know, hey, hey, I'm going to get her. The women's first round and second round are usually more chalky, though. Yeah. I think only one double digit seed won. Yeah. And that was the one I was like middle Tennessee. And I picked them to win. I was like, let's go, baby. Come on. I'm still rooting for Iowa. But yeah, Iowa State had a really good game against Stanford. Yes, Stanford last night. Yeah. And then also against Maryland as well. They had a good game. I watched a little bit of the women's bracket. But yeah, I was like, OK. 15 out of 16? No, that's pretty good. Bijon Robinson had like a perfect bracket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember I remember he did. And then like there was one pick that he had. It's like, OK, Bijon, what do we think in here? It was a 15 over a two. It was Marquette. Was it Western Kentucky? You beat Marquette? OK, what are we doing, Bijon? It's like, oh, and that's how he lost. I was like, dude, oh, was that it? That was it. That's what took him out. I was like, oh, you picked a Western Kentucky? I know he was definitely guessing on half of them. Oh, the Marquette Colorado game was good. Oh, I didn't watch that one. That's right. It was very good. We were watching that one here. Yeah, it was very, very good. It was-- yeah. I knew him can play that out of his mind, this tournament. He actually played pretty well. He played really well against Florida. He didn't play quite as well against Marquette. Yeah. Yeah, it was very interesting to see him on the court. And I hadn't watched much Colorado basketball this year. I hadn't watched any. So it was very interesting. But that kind of trio, Colorado played two really good games. They won one, they lost the other one. Yeah, we were so close to getting Eddie Lambkin versus DJ Burns on NC State, dude. Oh my gosh, that would have been incredible. Dang it, I wish I rooted for that. I was rooting for Marquette. I wish I was rooting. Yes. Your affiliation hasn't changed on the outcome. Yeah, I know. I know. I was excited, though, for Jack Golky, DJ Burns. And it delivered. It delivered. It did deliver. Because DJ Burns could not miss against Oakland. Yeah. Jack Golky did miss quite a bit, actually. Seth, what was it that you told me this weekend about why you think Eddie Lambkin went to Colorado? Oh, because he thinks that Dion Sanders coached the basketball team. Oh, man. Ah, man. Yeah, former TC Hornfroggs balled out a few. Jaden Lede on San Diego State was actually with us for a couple years. And he just had a monster leap in his fifth season. He's averaging, like, 20-some points per game. Eddie had a good weekend. Fairbellow. He is a consistent player on the court. He is there. And then Shahade Wells-- 19 points, man. Look at that. Yeah, 19 points. For who? For what? Shahade Wells? Oh, yeah. No. His team did not fare very well, but he did not fare very well. I wasn't really buying the McNeese over Gonzaga. That was a very popular upset. And it just-- I think everyone should have put more stock in the James Madison hype. Yeah, they should. I picked them to win. Because they actually beat good teams in the regular season and teams of Wisconsin's caliber, whereas McNeese was playing Mississippi University for women. But it was against men. Yeah. I saw that. That was hilarious. So I'm sorry, Shahade, maybe next year. Actually, is he-- Is he solid eligible? I mean, everyone has eligibility at this point. Yeah, I know. We're questioning this shit. I'm not sure if he does, but I just thought that, OK, I've seen him play several games. It's hard for me to believe that he can be the best player in beat Gonzaga. Like, that was my only reasoning. He did not do it last year. We saw him try. Yeah. It did not-- yeah, it didn't happen. So yeah, I can't believe, James, you got blown up by Duke, though. That was crazy. Yeah. I think Ian was there with me as we turned on that game. I don't know if you heard me, Ian. But I said, it's time for James Madison to become on board. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, and I was like, they got exposed pretty badly. And then their head coach left and took the Vanderbilt job today. Did he? Yeah. Wow. Quick turnaround. I know. That's interesting. Did he get fired or did he just laugh? He just took the job. Say, all right, I'm out of here. That must be cool, dude. You don't even have to, like, you know, it's not even like you get fired and you're like, no, I'm just not going into workday. I'm going here. I'm going to Nashville now. Yeah. For going to the SEC. That's what Dusty May did for Florida Atlantic. They lost Northwestern in the next eight to Michigan job. I saw that. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. Yeah, I'm really excited for this second weekend of March. There's a lot of higher seats left in the bracket. So I think we're going to get some really good basketball coming up. And it's really up in the air. Really, I would say UConn is probably the best team right now. But you never know. It's March. So it was a fun weekend looking forward to the Sweet 16 in the Elite Eight. But we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about the MLB because it is opening day. We're just a few days away from that. So super excited for that right here on Riff Ram Review. 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[MUSIC PLAYING] The College of Communication here at TCU offers the ever-growing and always-in-demand major of sports broadcasting. Many ask, what exactly is taught in the sports broadcasting major? This popular field of study caters to us students that want to learn the skills to produce live and remote sporting events for both radio and television. We acquire the skills to put together sports programming at the professional level, and we then use this new expertise to produce games you can watch on ESPN+ or listen to right here on KTCU. In addition to the hands-on experience, we also develop analytical skills to discuss and understand the social and cultural roles that sports play in countries around the globe. If you would like more information on a rewarding degree in sports broadcasting here at TCU, please visit ftdm.tcu.edu. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to "Riff Ram Review," right here on 88.7, "The Choice," your choice for college radio. Ian, a patient here alongside Zion Trammel and Seth Douto. As we enter into the second hour of the show, and we're moving on to some major league baseball as the season-- the 2024 season is upon us. Just the last couple of spring training games are underway. And then opening day officially is going to be on Thursday with a full-on slanted games as baseball is officially back in the United States. So it should be fun looking forward to it. It's been back in other countries. It has been. It has been. It's been back in South Korea for-- it was back in South Korea for two days, and then it left. And now it's going to be back here. But, man, baseball is back. And for you two, especially coming off of a World Series championship season, yeah. You guys must be pretty excited, too. Yeah, and this is probably the most excited I've been for a new MLB season in a long time. The last year was pretty exciting, but-- Sounds like it. That was so cool. I'm actually kind of dreading opening day, because these are the last couple of days where you can say that the last game that was played was a Rangers World Series victory. So that's true. Let's just hope we don't have to wait another 50 years to say that again. Please, God, please. But yeah, so Major League Baseball is back. We're kind of just going to do a bit of a-- maybe a superficial dive into expectations of this season. Kind of want to talk a little bit about the off season. But first off, I guess I'll just run through some of the games that some of the games coming up this weekend. Milwaukee taken on the Mets. The Angels taken on the Orioles for the first time since not having Show Hay Otani. Show Hay Otani and E-Pake had have their own two-hour show. Atlanta taken on Philadelphia. The Nat's taken on the Reds. The whole bunch of other-- some other divisional games. The Giants taken on the Padres. That should be interesting. Both of those teams kind of bolstering up in their respective ways this off season. And then a whole bunch of others. The Rangers are hosting the Cubs on Thursday. The A's are playing the Guardians help. And the A's can get off to a decent start because we need it. But yeah, so again, baseball is back. But I guess it's just starting off kind of simple and brief. Talking about this off season, who are some of the teams that you guys were most surprised by in terms of some of their off season moves or lack thereof of off season moves coming into the season? Because some teams did make some deep dives, especially over the last couple of weeks late on. I mean, the Giants made a lot of noise later on in spring training. But yeah, just tossing it to you guys. Who have you guys kind of rated over the last couple of weeks during this off season? I will say I was really impressed with the way the Giants kind of addressed things this off season. I think they had a really good improvement with their roster adding Jorge Solaire, a power bat that they've desperately needed. This offense was atrocious last season. Lots of strikeouts. And I think they really did a good job there. They obviously signed a Jung Ho Lee from Japan. So looking forward to seeing how he does. And then Matt Chapman, they kind of struggled a little bit at third base. I don't even know who their third baseman was last year. J.D. Davis. J.D. Davis. J.D. Davis. I mean, K.C. Schpory. Yeah, I mean, it was a revolving door for the Giants a lot of the time. Yeah, so to have someone hopefully be a little more consistent there at that third base position. And then they went out and got some pitching. They got the reigning Cy Young with Blake Snell. They got Jordan Hicks. And so they're both bolstering that bullpen with Camilo Duval. So I mean, I don't really like the Giants. But I will give them credit. They made a lot of good moves. And there's a lot to be excited about, because the N.O. West is going to be very competitive this season. So I think the Giants did a good job. I think the layup answer is that Dodgers improved most. So I'm not going to say that one. I instead am going to say that I was most impressed. Not impressed. But impressed would be too strong of a word. Surprised, I think, would be a better word by how many people the Royals signed this offseason. Obviously, the big thing that they did was they extended Bobby Wood Jr., which was big, especially for a small market team, like them, to commit to a star player like that. So I really like to see that. But their biggest signing of the offseason was left-handed pitcher and a three-time World Series champion, World Smith. Oh my gosh. Oh, man. In all seriousness, they did add a lot of other players. None of them are like, wow, that's a really awesome signing. But a lot of people where you're like, OK, they've made like a good bunch of quality, mainly baseball players to say Michael Walker, Hunter Renfro, Seth Lugo, Carlos Hernandez. They re-signed Brady Singer. So those are kind of a couple of guys that usually for a team like Kansas City, they're not delving into the free agent pool very often, especially the smaller budgets and whatnot. But they really did that. I think there was a time period, and this might still be true, where they had signed the most players and free agency. Wow, really. Yeah, OK. And again, none of them are like, wow, that's a star player. But a lot of them are like quality guys, veterans that could improve a roster, especially like Kansas City's, which is very, very, very young. So I don't think that the Royals are going to win the World Series or anything. Heck, they might not even like the playoffs. But I was surprised by how much traction they had in the offseason. And I think it's good to see. I think it's good to see an ownership like that try to commit to putting a good product in the field. Yeah, no. That's definitely something that you want to see is the ownership actually investing in their team. Talking about teams that have improved again. Is there a team that didn't? Yeah, I am actually very excited for the season, believe it or not. But no, I did want to just kind of jump in there with you, Zion. I don't want to reiterate literally everything you said, but everything you said was in my head as well about the Giants. I think on paper, Giants have a really nice-looking roster to start the season, like you said as well. NL West is very competitive. It's a bit-- I mean, the NL West is a lot like how the AL West used to be. The AL West is still very competitive, but it's just up and down the board. The AL West used to be just, man, three, four teams. We're always going to be going at it. But Giants looking really good. Again, I think the biggest thing for the Giants this year-- and I've kind of mentioned it here and there, just in discussion. But I really feel like the Giants this season, going in and getting guys like Chapman, like Snell, even though Robbie Ray is going to be out for a little bit. But guys like Jung Holy, it's like you're making commitments to guys, and it's a bit of this season. It looks really good on paper. I expect this to still be a transition year for the Giants, though. It's a year where you're saying, hey, we're starting to commit. And it's something that the Giants haven't really seen from their front office, from their ownership and from their general manager in terms of going for big free agent signings and things like that. So I think if you're the Giants, it's definitely a very positive outlook to start this season. You just got to put those pieces together. Again, I think it's great that you've got guys like Blake Snell, Robbie Ray. And then not to mention, you still have Logan Webb, who has been one of the most consistent pitchers over the last two to three seasons. And I think that's also one thing, is that you don't get a lot of consistency out of pitchers. Talking about consistency in Logan Webb, I think Robbie Ray and Blake Snell are probably two of the most inconsistent pitchers from your tier. But on paper, it looks like this team-- it looks like it's good on paper, and it looks like it's got depth. They've got a lot of young talent as well coming up. They kind of need to figure out what they want to do with that. But again, I think the Giants have surprised me. And it's kind of come out of nowhere too over just the last couple of weeks, making kind of just diving in and making those free agent signings. Yeah, I'd say that's a fair assessment. So yeah, no, I mean, really, really excited for this season. Are there any teams just curious? Are there any teams that you guys feel like should have made more moves, had an opportunity to make moves just in? If they can't come to mind, don't worry. I'm just curious to hear if anything off the cuff. Well, the Giants kind of were that team for a while, and then they made a lot of them. I think the Orioles could have done more. I know they traded for Corbin Burns, which is huge. But I feel like they could have done more to improve the starting pitching, especially now that Kyle Bradish is probably out for the rest of the year. And obviously-- Yes. Yeah, yeah. Oh, shoot. Oh, dang, that's-- It was kind of-- it was very much buried news. But if that did happen, I think it was a couple weeks ago. Holy fuck. That sucks. Because that rotation would have been super nice with Bradish and Burns 1, 2. So I think I wish that they did more. Because I think that if you could supplement that young roster with some more veteran talent, they could be really good. Because they are already really good. Obviously, they just won 100 plus games. Speaking of the Orioles, I saw a list of like team-- this is an MLB list, which notoriously have been pretty-- like on the Instagram account. I've been like pretty bad. Like, top five most teams that could surprise us in 2024. And the Orioles were fourth on the list. And it's like the team that just was the best team in the American League is going to surprise us. Yeah. They could make some heads. They can go from the best record to a couple of win improvement. Yeah, it's funny. Sometimes I'll see some things that are posted, whether it's from Bleacher Report or, again, even the MLB accounts on social media. And I just look at the graphics. I'm just like, OK, who's sitting here putting this together? There is a team of people that put this together, sent it off to, I don't know, social media editor before it goes out. And it's like, does this look good? Yep, looks good. And we sent it out. Yeah, my favorite one-- and this is like, well, like, Rangers bias. But it was like top 10 rookies to look out for in 2024. And Evan Carter was not on the list. And it's like, the guy who just hit third in the whole series. We're not looking for him. We're going to look for-- I don't remember who is on the list. Maybe they thought he wasn't a rookie anymore. Well, maybe they should know because they worked for a major league. They should. They should. And, yeah, that's fun. That's just my one we guess. That's awesome. Now, kind of switching gears, we have to do this because the season hasn't started. So it's only right for us to make our World Series picks. Oh, yes, of course. Obviously, this is the most obvious leap to the conclusion to make. Yeah, so either of you two can start-- I'll just say this, I haven't thought about it yet. I need to figure it out while you guys talk about it. So I'll toss it to one of you guys. I'll go first, and I'll talk through my logic as I give you more time, Ian. OK, sounds good. So obviously, the very easy pick, I think, would be Dodgers versus somebody else. And I'm not going to do that because the Dodgers got to prove me wrong in the playoffs for me to think that they can beat the Rockies in the NLDS. I'm going to go with the Philadelphia Phillies in six games over the Baltimore Orioles. I like it. It'd be so fun. I like it. That's good. Yeah, I mean, if I was a betting man, I would bet on the Dodgers to go far. Do you guys know anyone else that would-- That's what you pay would do on the Dodgers? Oh, oh, OK. Yeah, I just didn't know if there's a guy that bet on the Dodgers to go far, but-- Maybe the Angels perhaps, I don't know. Yeah, just let me know, though, if you guys know someone. OK, I'll figure that out. He might be-- I feel like he might be available for a new job. Oh. Get him on the pot. Yeah, some betting advice. Well, anyways, I'm not going to bet on the Dodgers to go to the World Series, even though, like Seth just said, that's the pretty obvious pick. I think in the National League, I think it's going to be the Atlanta Braves. And in the American League, it's a toss up, because it's between two teams. And I'm not saying the Rangers? No. Yeah, I'm just going to go with the Orioles. I was going to decide between the Orioles and the Astros, because it's so easy to pick Houston. I just don't want them to go. So I'm going to go with Baltimore versus Atlanta, with the Braves winning in six. The fun thing about the picking a team in the American League is you can just throw five of them away, because the Central is horrible. Yeah, pretty much. Kind of same in the National League, too, for the most part. I mean, unless you're going to go-- I'm competitive in the Central area of the United States. At least, like, the Cubs have players that I like and enjoy and are fun to watch. I like the Cubs. And the Cardinals have players that are fun and enjoyable and nice to watch. But that is not the case on any team, except for the Twins and Bobby Wood Jr. Yeah. In terms of my World Series picks, for the National League, at least, I'm really between the Phillies and the Braves. People may not agree with this, but I would love to see the Phillies win a World Series. I would. I mean, I cannot stand their fan base, but I like a lot of the players on that team. With that said, I will take the Atlanta Braves in the World Series, sorry. So I'm going to say the Braves are going to make to the World Series. They're going to win in six games over an AL team. Gosh, I'm trying to figure this out. Again, it's-- I mean, Houston's up there. Be fun and crazy. Go be wacky with it. I know. I know. Don't pick the Orioles. People just pick the Orioles. I know. I was looking at the Orioles or the Astros as well. Let's see. American League. Sorry, guys. I'm really dragging this one out here. No, it's all good. The Mariners are going to surprise some people this year. No, they're not. It's going to be the Braves against the Orioles. I'm going to Braves in six games. I'm sorry. I can't choose a division. So I can't do that. Yeah, and I don't know if anyone in the East-- I mean, the Yankees, they're-- people like that team for some reason to go deep. I mean, not for some reason, but I just don't think they're going to have enough pitching to make a run. Tampa Bay. They'll be good, though. They'll be in the wild card and lose, but they'll be there. No win like 95 games. That's the thing. I feel like with the Yankees, it's like that's where careers go to die. It's like you're really good. You're really good year after year. You get the big contract by, perhaps, the most iconic and famous team in baseball and the expectations from the media and the fans are just so insanely high. It's like you'll never live up to it. It's like if you're Garrett Colle, you just want to sign up. Yes. But he's one of the few exceptions. I mean, Joey Gallo was the most recent, the one that I really saw. Marcus Strowman, buddy. Sorry. You're on the back end of your career. We'll probably won't hear from you again. Yeah. But yeah, World Series picks. So we will check in in November. But yeah, so folks, yeah, that will wrap up our segment about the MLB season. It is upon us. Thursday is opening day for all the teams collectively. But yeah, in the next segment, we will take a little bit of a deep dive into the ALS because all of our teams are there and all of our teams being the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics. So with that, we will take a break and we will be right back here on Reframe Review, right here, on 88.7, the choice. Wake up and text. Text and eat. Text and catch the bus. Text and miss your stop. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Text and be late to work. Sorry, I'm late. Text and work. Text and pretend to work. Text and act surprised when someone calls you out for not working. Who me? Text and meet up with a friend you haven't seen in forever. Hi. Oh, hey. Text and complain that they're on their phone the whole time. Text and listen to them complain that you're on your phone the whole time. Ugh. Text and whatever. But when you get behind the wheel, give your phone to a passenger. Put it in the glove box. Just don't text and drive. Visit stoptextstoprex.org. A public service announcement brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council. Meet Designated Dave. Hey, Dave, my main man. What's going on, bro? Dave provides a valuable service to college students. Um, hi. I just got a call from Amber. She said she needs a ride home? Uh, yeah, yeah. Hold on a sec. Amber. Designated Dave is always on call, ready to lend a helping hand to kids who are too impaired to drive safely. Whoa, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, Amber. Dave, I'm so wasted right now. You don't say. 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We got into this MLB season preview, but we're going to zone in on one division in particular. And that's the American League West because we have an ace fan here and we got two Rangers fans and Seth and I. So we're going to talk about this American League West. Not-- I mean, there were some-- I guess there wasn't a ton of big moves that happened in the American League West. I think the biggest name was Josh Hader going to Houston. And certainly they have a monster back end of that bullpen. But their starting rotation might be a bit of an issue. What do you guys think about Houston? Yeah, it's a lot like kind of last year I feel like in terms of Houston coming into the season with what feels like a lot of lack of depth. I think that was the biggest thing last year that they faced. But again, somehow Houston always figures a way to figure it out and kind of get on with their season. But yeah, no, this year especially. I mean, you have once again an aging arm in Justin Verlander. And then-- but adding Josh Hader to the back of the bullpen definitely helps. I mean, he's just been so good over the last couple seasons. What, what, he was with the Brewers, was he anywhere else after that? Did he go somewhere else after the Brewers? The Padres. That's right. He was with the Padres. Yeah, that's right. So I think it's a great move. Gave him a lot of money. But again, the Astros always tend to figure it out. They've got a lot of veteran leadership there, so. Yeah, it sucks. So they probably will win the division. Really? You think they're discounting out my team? No, no, no, absolutely not. Alex Wood. Let's talk about the Oakland A's real quick. Because, yeah, Ross Stripling asks Alex Wood, JD Davis, and Miguel Anduhar. Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, Miguel Anduhar does look like he's going to be out for a little bit. He just got injured in one of the last spring training games over in Arizona. But overall, I mean, the guys that we brought in, I mean, it's the Giants rejects, basically. Everyone that was on the Giants and not wanted, they came over here. But honestly, I'm excited that what we have added is some veteran leadership at the very minimum. That's what it is. I didn't want to add any more young guys to the team. Obviously, the A's have a very young team and lots of young and exciting players. But our starting rotation definitely needed some bolstering up with guys that have been there and done that and have shown that they can pitch in the major leagues year after year after year. Because we had quite a few rookie pitchers last year. Like JP Sears made 32 starts as a rookie. And that's great for his experience, but JP Sears as a rookie should not have to make 32 starts, right? And so I'm excited to get Alex Wood. He's going to be the opening day starter. The A's also picked up JD Davis. So that's kind of interesting to maybe see how that's going to work out. But really going into this season, I'm excited to see a lot of the young guys just continue to get to play. Shae Lingelier, this is going to be his third season. He's getting to that point where he needs to prove that his back can keep him in the majors. Because back-to-back seasons, he's hit under 210. And he's a great catcher. He does have power, but he needs to start showing a more consistent bat at the plate. Zach Geloff is probably the biggest name on the A's right now. Really excited to see him get back to work. We saw him for, I want to say maybe like 40, 45 games last year, he batted 265. That was probably the best or second best on the team, frankly. So looking forward to him playing Lawrence Butler in the outfield, looking forward to him as well. He's another one of the young guys. And then Esta Ruiz and Brian Noda, those are our two guys that are just on base machines. Esta Ruiz needs to kind of get on base more. And we need to utilize his speed a lot. Because last season, he had 58 stolen bases. So I'm excited this year, obviously, is not in the grand scheme of things. It's not going to be a big year. But I want to see improvement. I want to see the young guys get more experience. I'm hoping the A's can get to 60, 65 wins somewhere in between that. And I think that would be good. But for a couple of guys though, for the A's, there's a couple of guys there like Seth Brown, Nick Allen, who have been on this team for the last three, four, five years for them. This is probably going to be their last shot at showing the A's and other possible major league teams that they still deserve a shot on another team as well. Yeah. Brent Rooker too. Yeah, Brent Rooker as well. Yeah, coming off of a 30-home run season. But yeah, no, I mean, I'm looking forward to-- I am actually excited for this season. I know if you ask any other A's fan, they're probably not really excited. But I'm excited for the young talent. That's really what it is. And ultimately, I just want to see improvement at this point, so. Yeah. I like Zach Geloff, a good baseball player. I can already see the A's beating the Rangers 2 to 1, where Zach Geloff hits a two-run home run. As for Ruiz gets on base. Jordan Diaz as well, young infielder for the A's. So yeah, just really all around the board. It's a bunch of young guys and just want to get those guys more experience. And you're going to be in a division where you're playing a lot of guys that are veterans. You're playing a team that just came off the back of a World Series title. And within that as well, you're playing a good squad in Seattle. You've got great, great veterans on the Houston Astros that you're going to have to go play against as well. And so they're in a division where the competition is very high. So there's not a lot of room for error. Now there will be lots of error this year for the A's on hitting and the pitching side. But that's natural with the situation we're in. But still just have to be as positive as possible. Yeah. You're going to try and make it out to the Colosseum? Yeah, yeah, I know. I definitely want to. I'm hoping in the summer I can at least go back for a couple of weeks in the California go see the Colosseum. I didn't go last year at all. So that was the first time in probably about 10 or 12 years I had not been to the Colosseum. I went to more games at the Colosseum than you did. Yeah, it's very unnatural for me to not go see the A's at the Colosseum. And it means that they have to really be bad for me to not go and also schedule wise, too. But yeah. Seth, what are my comments on the A's? Is that what you're going to ask me? Yeah, we've got to get you the Colosseum. Oh, yeah, we do. Because limited opportunities, at this point, potentially-- You might have three more years, actually. This is a good point. I might go see the A's in Oracle next year, you know? Oh, gosh. Oh, that would be crazy. Oh. Well, yeah, I mean, it probably won't happen this summer. Dang it, come on, man. You have to come see the troughs and all that, you know? They experience the Colosseum bathrooms at least. I'll go to like a Texas rest stop or something like that if I want to see that. Colosseum, it's something you just have to see. I'll be in Rome. I'll see the Col-- I will see A-- A Colosseum. We'll see the original. Yeah. They tried to replicate it in Oakland, and they put a baseball field in the middle of it. You know, the Colosseum did have its charm back in the day when this team was really competitive. And it still does, but there's just not any fans there anymore. But when it was packed, there was some really-- there was a charm there that really stood out. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, for me, the Colosseum is always going to be nice. I mean, I go there, and I'm just like, yeah, I love watching games on the TV more so. Because you don't see all the cracks in the disgusting things you do. Yeah, the rats, the literal rally possums in the stadium. It didn't have that back in the day. It did, though. Anyways, let's move on from Oakland. Let's talk about the better team. The Texas Rangers, they-- It's true, Ian. We're sorry. You guys suck. They're coming off a pretty cool season where they won the World Series, so Seth, what are your kind of expectations coming into this season? My expectations are to just have a nice, fun little time. That's pretty much all his. I want this season to be a little party, especially like the first week. I mean, we've celebrated enough. Let's celebrate again. And then we can get into actual baseball. I mean, there's a lot of questions around the rotation for the first half of the year that certainly damper some of my expectations otherwise. But the lineup still is going to bash, I think. And there's some really exciting young pieces. I mean, we're going to get to see a full season of Evan Carter, which is very exciting. I'm very excited to watch Wyatt Langford hit in the major leagues. I mean, it was less than a year ago that he was playing in Omaha at the College World Series for Florida. And now he will be in the opening day starting lineup on Thursday. So that is very, very, very cool. But yeah, I'm very interested to see how this celebration and tour to go on and defend this title goes. I don't know how it will go. I don't think that they will win the World Series this year. But I certainly expect to compete for the division and make the playoffs. Yeah, and that's OK. They don't need to win another World Series for me to be happy. At this point, what I want from the Rangers is continued success and not this just be like a World Series hangover where they're struggling. And you certainly don't want to run into that. I want to see continued success where they're making the playoffs, making deep runs. And if they don't win the World Series, that's fine. I just want to see competitive baseball, because the last two times the Rangers were really good. Those really good runs lasted like two years. The 2010, 2011 run kind of faltered a little bit after that. Then 2015 and 2016, they made the playoffs, had 90 plus wins, and then sucked after that. So I want to see continued success. And I'm really excited for the young guys. And for Wyatt Langford, I mean, do you realize how good you have to be to be in college baseball a year ago and be in the opening day lineup of the reigning World Series champs? Like, that is-- you have to be insane. And that's what Wyatt Langford has been doing in spring training. He's been insane. He's been incredible. Yeah, the lineup is no question. The starting rotation, though, I think we can get into that a little bit. Obviously, George Montgomery will not be in the starting rotation for the Rangers this season. I've given up hope that he will be on the Rangers ever again. But I still have a little-- my pinky in my ring finger across behind my back right now that he signs a one-year deal. Actually, Jordan, this is my advice. Just sign with someone, please, now. That would be good. But, I mean, of all these going to start opening day, and then after that, it's just a bunch of guys that, you know, have been good. We've seen them been good before. But can they do that for a whole season as a question? Yeah, I think Dane Dunning should be fine. Whether hitters adjust to him or not will be interesting to see. But I think Dane Dunning will be fine. But yeah, you start to get into what are we going to get from John Gray. Michael Lorenzen probably will start here in there. Cody Bradford, Andrew Heaney. We saw the inconsistencies with them. And so, yeah, that certainly is a question mark. But hey, the second half of the season, I mean, in a perfect scenario, you could end up having Scherzer, DeGrom, Evaldi, as your-- and then have other guys fill in from there. Yeah, and the best-case scenario, it is the ending to the two towers. Where Gandalf comes in with the Calvary to save everyone. Yeah, and I'm not sure if I am expecting anything from DeGrom this season. I am expecting Scherzer to come back and hopefully contribute. DeGrom, probably like August. That's my guess is when he would return. Yeah, probably. Scherzer should be back in June at the best late May. Yeah. Scherzer was a back one, right? Was that a back injury? Yeah, or needed disc. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Got to get to the chiropractor, man. Yeah, man. Get your back adjusted. They added some veteran bullpen arms with Kirby Yates and David Robertson to kind of bolster what was such a bad bullpen last season. At least that's probably going to be better, which is-- I'm very hopeful that that will be fine. Yes, that should be better. And so for me, for Texas, to get 90 plus wins, that's kind of the expectation. If you win the division, great, if not, whatever. Make a run, yeah. I mean, yeah, they didn't win the division last year and were fine. So that's obviously not the end-all-be-all. Final thing, let's briefly talk about the Mariners. Solid rotation, they stole Mitch Garver from us. Bad, bad, bad, don't do that ever again. But they added-- that's pretty much all they added. And they got rid of a lot of people. And then you could argue they probably maybe got better in a certain sense. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, maybe they did, yeah. Because, I mean, their problem is not pitching. It's just that the offense is very inconsistent. And they got rid of the inconsistent bats and other-- they're kind of hopeful on a lot of unproven people. Beside Mitch Garver, obviously, he's proven. They got Jorge Palanco. Ooh. I like that. Is this-- Those wins. If this was 2019, I would love that. It does not though. They're infielded-- yeah, Luis Urias is there too. Luis Urias. No. Oh, Urias. No, no, no, not the good one. Luis Urias. All right, I don't know how to say-- I was like, hold on, Luis Urias is not on the Mariners. Yeah, I want there's no way. Yeah, I would be dropping bricks on my pants right now. No, not the good one. Taylor Trammel is really going to be a monster. Yeah, in my OOTP franchise, actually, he was pretty good. So I actually have a lot of hope that he might be-- No, yeah, he's going to be a beast. Why? Well, he's got a cool last name. Because he's a baseball player. Yeah, he's got a cool last name. So, you know. The Angels. All right, so that's the end of this segment. [LAUGHTER] Josh, poor LA. She's a-- I don't know. LA trout. So, Shohio Tani is no longer on the team. Anthony Rendon does not want to be there. Ron Washington, though, he's going to fix him. That's my hope. I hope not. Respectfully, I love Wash. His personality, that's what I mean. He's going to fix his personality. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Ron Washington. We had this little conversation off the air before the segment, and I said, I want Ron Washington to do well, but I want the Angels to suck. And that really just does not happen. There's not really a world in which that happens, so. What I hate is that they are setting him up to fail. Yeah. Who's their opening day starter? Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Deckers. Ooh, let's look. Let's see, Angels. This is-- They are setting him up for failure, though. And Wash, man, best of luck, dude. It's a best of luck. Despers, Sandoval, Tyler Anderson, Yikes, man. Their opening day starter is Drumroll, please. Pablo Sandoval. Patrick Sandoval. Sorry. It's like, what is the final? I know they're not great, but, man, that's desperate. My bad, everyone. I saw P. Sandoval, and I just said what first came to my head. She said it's funny. They got Aaron Hicks. Look at that. Aaron Hicks, all right. I was thinking about the Ranger and A. Aaron Hicks for a second. Do you guys remember who that was? Who? Back in 2012, 2014, there's a Ranger. He played on the Rangers and the A's for two, three seasons. Aaron Hicks. This man-- I do not remember this, man. No, I don't. But yeah, the Angels will be a team, and they will go out there. There are more players on the A's that I'm excited to see than the Angels, honestly. I mean, that team-- besides the trout, it's just like, you know? Because the A's are just-- they're fun. I just-- they're fun, you know? We'll see how they-- I just am interested to see how they get through 162 games. And whereas the Angels is just like, gosh, how have you done this? How did you not do anything with Shohei or Trout? I loved how last year they were like, we're going to-- they pushed all their chips to the middle of the table, and then they released all of them a month later. That's right. They did. They just said, here, we're going to give away everyone, Matt Moore, and-- I can't even remember the other guys, but yeah, this is so-- Lucas Gileto, Reynold Lopez. They traded for all of them, and then they cut all of them immediately. Brandon Hicks. Brandon Hicks. OK, OK, yes. I do remember him very-- like, not vividly. But yes, I know the name. Yeah, I was like, Aaron Hicks does not exist. I'm Brandon Hicks. That actually doesn't help. He had a two-run walk-off homer against the Rangers when he was with the A's to right center field. He sucked, but I just remembered him. On that day, he was a hero. On that day, he was a hero. He was a baller. So, well, quickly, do you guys-- who's winning the division? Oakland. Is this the reverse order? Who's winning the division? I mean, is it the Rangers? I'm going to say the Rangers. I think Rangers are going to struggle in the first half of the season, and it's going to be too much to come back in the second half. I think it'll be Astro's Rangers one and two. But yeah, so Astro's. I'll go Houston. I think that's like the best bet. I slightly agree with you, Ian. I think they'll struggle to a certain degree. I think they'll be able to hit their way to some wins, though. They will. They definitely will. I think if the Rangers can get into the all-star break-- 10 games for a fuck. Yeah, I'm kind of thinking 10 games about 500. That's good. That's a good point to be. And any more, great, any less, and you're like, OK. Might be tough. Might be a little tough, but hey, we can still work with it. Yeah, so we'll see. Yeah, and obviously we don't know what any team will do at the trade deadline. Yeah, exactly. There's a whole wrench into what I just said. OK, crap. We're going to take a break. The Rangers will open up their season on Thursday, taking on the Cubs. But we'll take a quick break, and when we come back, we're going to do a fun segment with some March Madness right here on Refram Review. Wake up and text. Text and eat. Text and catch the bus. Text and miss your stop. Text and be late to work. Sorry, I'm late. Text and work. 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Our final segment is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. We've talked about basketball. We've talked about baseball. And now, we will talk about basketball again. As March Madness is fun, and so are the mascots that are in it as well. And I have given the two boys on the other side of the glass a task. They are going to try and name those said mascots in a fun little format. So as you all know, there are 64 teams in the main bracket. And they are split up into four separate divisions, sections. What do we call them? Tell me out here. Regions. There you go. Regions. Regions. Regions. Thank you very much. So this is how this is going to work. I'm going to split each region in half, and I'm going to rapid fire, ask you all teams, and you'll have to give you the mascot in 30 seconds. You have 30 seconds to go through the half of the region. So eight teams. So each of you all will have the opportunity to name 32 mascots. Whoa. Let's do it. I don't know if I know a 32. Let's do it. And so this is the person who gets the most. Can we write them down, like type them out on our thing? No, you're just going to say them. Oh, we say them. You're just going to say them. And we're going to-- you have 30 seconds of music to get it. That's pretty much how it's going to go. OK. Do we have to name, like, we don't have to say, like, super frog, like, their name? No, no, it'll be here. That's good. And you're going to go-- if I say TC, you're going to go horn frocks. Yeah, horny toads. Yeah. And you have to be, like, completely correct. You cannot be-- you cannot say horny toads, and I will not give it to you. Oh, I'm horrible with mascots, guys. So I have my handy dandy notepad. I will tally up everybody. So as we go along, Ian, Zion, play rock, paper, scissors real fast. So it's back and forth. Back and forth. So Ian, you will get the first eight teams in the east region. Hold on. I need to-- nope, we're doing it. On shoot. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Bam. OK, Zion's doing it. OK. So Ian-- oh, Zion, you will get the first eight teams in the east division, and then I will go to Ian, and you will get the last eight teams in the east region. OK. And then we will go to the south of the west or whatever, and just go-- Yeah. You're telling us the name of the team, though. OK. I will go to TCHU, and then you have to go X-- What's their mask? So Zion-- OK. --it is time-- Let's do it. --for the music. And the-- Music? --two, one. Yukon. Huskies. Stetson. Bennett. Pass. FAU. The Owls. Northwestern. The Wildcats? San Diego State. The Aztecs. UAB. The Dragons. Auburn. Tigers. Yale. Bulldogs. Stetson. Didn't you already have someone? Pass. Time out. So he got seven of eight. No, he got Yukon. He got FAU. Oh, OK. You did not get Northwestern. What was it? You got San Diego State. You did not get UAB. You got five-- You got six out of eight. I was about to try again? You got six out of eight. Yes, they're not the dragons. I just went past it. Oh, I thought they were. You missed the Stetson Hatter's. The Northwestern Wildcats. Of course. In the UAB web wildcats. Sorry, you got six out of eight. I missed Stetson and UAB. UAB the blazers. Stetson the Hatter's. Oh, because I know they have a dragon mascot, so OK. The good start, good start, good start. Oh, God. Oh, God. And unfortunately, I will say that you did get the worst half of this. Yeah, you asked the top eight. Yeah, now you get the bottom eight. Before we go on, I am going to double check a mascot. OK, there we go. I know it now. I don't know. All right. I'm afraid of this, guys. Not seriously. We are going to change the rules. We're just going to go through no time limit. That's dumb. I've decided the no time limit. So we're just going to go through them once. And then you have an opportunity if you pass on one to go back to one of them, and then you have no time. I know I passed on Stetson to why it's only a pass on. And if you pass just like throw out a guess, and then that's your last chance. OK. That makes any sense. We're making up the rules on the fly, because this segment was developed. Also, not a fly. All right. Ian, here we go. In three, two, one. BYU. Cougars. Duquesne. Oh, man. Duquesne. OK, good. No time limit. Hold on. Duquesne-- the dukes, right? Yeah. Duquesne dukes, yeah. Illinois. Elinai. Morehead state. Morehead state. Pass. Washington state. Washington state. Cougars. Drake. Drake. The rappers. We'll count that as a pass. Iowa state. Iowa state cyclones. And then South Dakota state. South Dakota state moles. OK, you passed on Morehead state. Morehead state-- what's the sum of the m? Moose. Moose. So Ian, unfortunately, you only got four out of eight. What? So you set Alinai. They are the fighting Alinai. Oh, man. You passed on Morehead state. There are the Eagles. Yeah. OK. Drake. Drake are the Bulldogs. And then South Dakota state are the Jackrabbits. OK, Jackrabbits. Come on, man. Four out of eight. I am kind and I will give you the-- Thank you. Thank you. --the Alinai. Fighting Alinai. I apologize. I apologize. That's on me. I did say I was going to be strict, but I will not be strict. Thank you. OK, Zion, it is your turn to do-- the South region of the bracket, the first-- OK. You're going to do the bottom eight. We're going to flip it around. You're going to do the bottom eight here. I'm about to be exposed. OK. Here we go, Zion, in 3, 2, or 1. Texas Tech. The Aggies. Oh, the Red Raiders. See. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, my god. Oh, my goodness. Oh, geez. Oh, that's horrible. That's horrible. I don't know why Texas A&M clicked in my head. That's hilarious. That's the top 10 moment on the show. That's funny. All right. All right, you did not get that. I'm so sorry. NC State. The Wolfpack. Kentucky. Wildcats. Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies. Florida. Gators. Colorado's. Marquette. The Golden Eagles. And then Western Kentucky. The Bearcats. I don't know. You guess again. The Wildcats. All right. The Cats. So you got six out of eight. You missed Texas Tech. And Western Kentucky, you heard the Hilltoppers. Oh, wow. The Hilltoppers. The Hilltoppers. I can't believe I did that. That's awesome. You have 12, Ian. You have four. It should be 13. I have four days. Wait. No, I have four or I have five. I thought I had five. You have five. Sorry. I did not clown the diagonal line on my tally. I just died. So here we go, Ian. You get the top half of the South bracket in three, two, one. Houston. You're going to Cougars, yeah. Longwood. Longwood? Yeah. Longwood. Pass. Texas A&M. Aggies. Nebraska. Cornhuskers. Wisconsin. Badgers. James Madison. James Madison. Oh, James Madison, oh, man. Pass. Duke. Duke. Oh, my God. This is bad. Blue Devils. Vermont. Oh, I know this one. Lake monsters. That was the A's single 18 one time. We'll go back to James Madison. Yeah. James Madison. How do you get? No, you didn't get James Madison. I didn't get James Madison. James Madison, shoot. The jockeys. I don't know. Incorrect. So, Ian, you missed Longwood. Yep. They have the Lancers. Oh, my God. James Madison are the Dukes in Vermont are the cat amounts. I didn't think it was. The what? The cat amounts. Yeah. For who? Vermont. For Vermont, the cat amounts. All right. This is the final round for everybody. The score. The score is 12 to 10. We skipped. We're doing only three regions. Well, we are running out of time unfortunately. Oh, shoot. We are. Okay. So, we will do a random. I'm just going to go random. Okay. I'm going to go random as I am and I'm going to give you eight teams here. Okay. Yeah. Because when you said Florida, I knew the next one was recall. I just started figuring it out. All right. So, here we go. You have eight teams. These are going to be split between the west and the Midwest regions. Okay. All right. Samford. The Bulldogs. All right. South Carolina. Gamecocks. Creighton. Blue Jays. Baylor. Bears. Dayton. Flyers. Clemson. Tigers. Grand Canyon. The antelopes. So, the lopes. Final. The, the, the antelopes. Yeah. Yeah. The, the antelopes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, the lopes. Final. One. Charleston. Charleston. Uh. Charleston. It's always good to just, yeah. Bullocks. You've got to always got to do like a dog or a cat. Yeah. That is incorrect. It is the Cougars. Cougars. You were right on the cat. Cat trail was correct. Yeah. That was a, that was a good call. Yeah. So, you got seven out of eight there. Okay. So, you have, okay. Let me count. It's impossible for me to win. It is. So, Zion has won. I am not going to do the quick math with my tallies. 19. Yes. He has 19. Thank you very much. 19. Uh, Ian, this is worth the same amount of points. I'm not going to do my thousand points. Let's go. We will put our best foot forward. We. And, Ian, we're just going to, we're going to flex our muscles here hopefully. Okay. We're going to flex our muscles here. We're going to get, I'm hoping to give you some layups. Come on. All right. Here we go. In three, two, one. North Carolina. North Carolina tar heels. Purdue. Uh, Boilermakers. Gonzaga. Gonzaga Bulldogs. Oregon. Ducks. Colorado state. Colorado state. Yeah. Oh shoot. Colorado state. Mastodons. I'm going to, I wish. St. Peter's. St. Peter's. Oh man. No. St. Peter's. Um, I feel like it's something with an F. Pass. Uh, Kansas. Uh, Jayhawks. Mississippi state. Mississippi state. Oh man. Pass. And then finally St. Mary's. Uh, Gaels. All right. Take me a second there. Hold on. All right. We'll go back to the one you missed where St. Peter's Colorado state and Mississippi state. Dude, Mississippi state. How am I blanking on this? Mississippi state. They're not the Aggies too, are they? No, they're not. That's fine. That's my guess. All right. They are the Bulldogs. Really Mississippi state's a bulldog? Yes. Oh dang. They are the Bulldogs. St. Peter's are the peacocks and Colorado state are the Rams. I couldn't think of the bird for St. Peter's. I was like, what? I was about to say, you're thinking of F as like, well, feathers. I know. Yeah. I thought the F was wrong. Yeah. But a finals tally. That's fine. 19. 216. Hey, not bad at all. Not bad at all. Not bad at all. So Zion, I don't remember. We should have been, we should have been keeping score of like all the games that we do. I don't know what the tally is between y'all two. Ian won the last one, that's all I know. Yeah. He won the hockey one last. Yeah, I did. By a thousand points. By a thousand and two. I smoked one. Yeah. I got destroyed. But yeah. But that was fun. That was a fun way to wrap up the show, guys. Yeah. That's fun, Seth. Really enjoyed that. We will never do that again. We will never do that yet. Next March Madness. Yeah. Next March Madness. Exactly. The problem is, it's like not like it's a new crop of colleges that are in the fold. So like now you know. Now you know. Next time I expect to get a hundred percent, hopefully maybe we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. But no. That was fun. Thank you, Seth. Thank you for that fun little game at the end. But yeah, folks. Thank you so much for tuning in again. Once again, to Reframe Review, episode 24. So making it up the ladder, going to get to our, yes. Sorry. No, you're good. I was going to say something stupid like that we're going to get to our quarter of a century anniversary. But thank you so much for tuning in folks. We hope you enjoyed it again. Once we come back next week, we will have a lot more baseball to talk about as well as the MLB season will be underway. So a lot going on on the baseball front for the Hornfrocks for the Major Leagues in general. So folks, thank you so much for tuning in. You can catch this episode if you missed it live on Spotify or Apple Podcast at Reframe Review. Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @reframereview as well as subscribing to our YouTube @reframereview. For Zion Channel, Seth Dattle, I'm Ina Patient. Thank you so much for listening and we will see you guys next time. Bye. Bye. in. [BLANK_AUDIO]