00:00We're going to start with the madness as I sit across from a man decked out in his very aggressive
00:05maze in blue today.
00:07Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind the glass.
00:10A blinding maze outfit from John Jansen.
00:13It's like a highlighter.
00:14You mean I don't do subtle well?
00:17I thought maybe you guys wouldn't notice.
00:19What did you say when you came in?
00:21I said, oh my gosh, I was blinded on my drive-in because when I pull into the parking lot,
00:25I drive past our cubicle area.
00:28I mean, I literally saw you.
00:32Glowing?
00:32Yes, right there from your desk.
00:35Did the angel start singing?
00:36No, no they didn't.
00:40Yeah, baby, go blue!
00:42And we'll find out tonight.
00:44What's that?
00:45That's not even the Adidas yellow.
00:46Oh no.
00:47Which is bright.
00:48Yeah, this is full Jumpman yellow, which I can actually wear now because anytime you have Jumpman on your Michigan
00:56gear,
00:57it's obviously for basketball, right?
00:59Obviously.
00:59And so, yeah, we have Michigan basketball in the final four, which everyone knows about.
01:08And if you aren't following the hockey tournament, the competition that Jim Costa thought was going
01:16to be the final game is not to be because Michigan State got eliminated by Wisconsin.
01:25Choke job.
01:25Uh-huh.
01:26And Michigan is in the frozen four.
01:29And tonight, our ladies are going to go up and try and face, who are they playing?
01:36Texas, the number one seed, and it is a dominant team.
01:39But the line has moved.
01:40Not that anyone ever noticed, but I did.
01:43From 10 and a half, it opened up.
01:44Michigan, 7 o'clock tonight against Texas, has moved from 10 and a half to 9 and a half.
01:50So we're making progress.
01:51Yes, and it'll be the first time Michigan women's basketball has ever made the final four.
01:59Previously, 2022, they made the Elite Eight, got knocked out, and tonight, they're going
02:05to go for their first opportunity at a final four.
02:08So let's go blue, baby.
02:10So this guy's going to be revved up to a 10 today.
02:12Uh-huh.
02:17Yep.
02:18We're going to be dealing with this.
02:19Yep.
02:19Sure.
02:19The other thing John can celebrate is he already won the March Madness draft.
02:23Oh, did he?
02:23Yes, I did.
02:24I did.
02:24I'm glad somebody else brought that up.
02:26I don't want to toot my own horn.
02:27I want to congratulate you.
02:30Job well done.
02:30You got two final four teams, Michigan and Illinois.
02:33Yes.
02:33Costa would have had a say in it still, and then Duke happened.
02:38But you know what?
02:38I'm not mad.
02:39Everybody loves when Duke loses.
02:41When Duke loses, America wins.
02:43Yeah.
02:47However, I'm just...
02:48I can't celebrate a Hurley win.
02:52Like, he just annoys me.
02:56He's a winner.
02:56He's already a two-time national champion.
02:58I didn't say he was a loser.
03:00I just said I can't...
03:02Is this just something about him?
03:03Yeah, he's a jackass.
03:05I mean, wasn't it the jackass face-off when it was him and Mick Cronin?
03:10Everybody...
03:10I mean, it was pretty much...
03:11It was talked about online.
03:14It was talked...
03:14I don't know that we talked about it too much, but I had, in my bracket, I'm like, this is
03:19the A-hole matchup.
03:21My perspective is that you would love to play for him.
03:24I don't know him well enough.
03:26I think you would.
03:28But, yeah, I mean, would I love to play for Belichick?
03:31Sure.
03:32Competitive desire.
03:33Yeah.
03:33Yeah.
03:34And you have that.
03:35So, yeah, here we go.
03:38And so, yeah, it's...
03:40And this is where you're in your bracket and, you know, having picked who I believe is the
03:47winner, I was mulling around out of 17 brackets in our own personal family bracket.
03:54I was mulling around early on, right around 13, 10, 9, and then after all the games were
04:02played yesterday, who was sitting there in the two spot?
04:07That would be me, Mr. Patience.
04:10And who's in the one spot?
04:12My wife.
04:13Who has Illinois winning the ball.
04:15Yes.
04:15And we could be facing off in the national title game.
04:19Hold on.
04:20The national title game is Saturday night.
04:22Well, it probably is, yes.
04:23And, you know, whoever wins that Michigan-Arizona game is going to be favored on Monday night.
04:30But it would be an epic matchup in the Jansen house.
04:34It would be.
04:34Now, Michigan's done this emphatically, right?
04:36This is four wins, all where they score at least 90 points.
04:40All by double digits.
04:42And by the way, the Elite Eight, they had the stat at the end of the broadcast.
04:46Michigan's margin of victory in the Elite Eight is the largest of any team in the Elite Eight
04:51since 1989.
04:551989 is when Michigan won their national title.
04:57Oh, is it?
04:58Oh, okay.
04:59Well, as you are well aware, in 89, they absolutely destroyed Virginia in their regional final.
05:06It's probably one of the most pleasurable Michigan basketball wins ever.
05:10It was just an annihilation.
05:12It was.
05:13Yes.
05:14What Jim didn't mention, by the way, is that Michigan is the one who did it.
05:17Yeah.
05:17Correct.
05:17Yes.
05:18Yes.
05:19It's interesting, Tom, because you have this theory, and I don't know if people feel it,
05:24that because of the landscape of college athletics, the mercenary culture, are people as connected
05:31to this Michigan team as maybe some of those other ones that have made the final four,
05:35made the national title?
05:37I don't know.
05:37I just have this little bit of a feeling like people are a little bit emotionally detached from this team.
05:44Maybe it was a Trey Burke shot in 13 that made people get attached, because that was a great basketball
05:49moment.
05:50Yeah.
05:51Then they destroyed Syracuse, I think, on the next Sunday.
05:5618 was more of a Cinderella run.
05:59Wasn't that with the whole airplane incident?
06:01Yeah.
06:03No, that was a year before.
06:04Yeah.
06:06I think there might be some of that, because there hasn't been any, quote, dramatic moment.
06:12But how dare they just win by 20?
06:15I think that's it, John.
06:17It's attachment is emotional.
06:21Emotion gets stirred by close games, by 30-foot game-tying threes, by buzzer beaters, by freshmen,
06:29by nip-and-tuck games in the Elite Eight.
06:31Not by putting the SEC in a trash can, which is essentially what they did this weekend.
06:36Yep.
06:37I do like the trash can aspect of it, too.
06:39Oh, me too.
06:39And so, I do not feel that way.
06:43I would think you view this as your best chance to win a national title, because 18, I didn't think...
06:50I thought Villanova was clearly the better team going into that national title game.
06:53Now, you always have a puncher's chance, but I thought they were the underdog.
06:55Michigan doesn't feel like the underdog, and there's something that you should attach to
06:59when you feel like, oh, yeah, we're as good as any team in the country.
07:03This is our national title to go win.
07:05That typically rallies people, I would think.
07:07Well, and I think part of it was the game yesterday, where I was 100% fully invested
07:15up until halftime.
07:17And then at halftime...
07:18You had Sean Barkley.
07:19Yeah, and then I didn't even hear what his comments were.
07:22It's over.
07:22Yeah.
07:23So, at halftime, I felt like, okay, I'm going to keep it on.
07:28I've got some work I'm going to do in the house, and I was walking past the TV, and I
07:34thought, oh, okay, well, now it's 25 points.
07:37Okay, we're taking care of business.
07:38Oh, now it's 30 points.
07:39Oh, okay.
07:40I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.
07:41I'm going to pay attention, but I'm not going to be sitting there watching, because the
07:46game was pretty much decided.
07:48It was a full half of garbage time basketball, essentially.
07:53Yeah, Dusty's boy even scored.
07:55Oh, that's...
07:56I mean, I was still, like, all in the whole way.
07:58I mean, I watched the Charlie May, like, sorry, contest, rebound, like everything.
08:02I was still...
08:02I didn't even realize he had scored until this morning.
08:05Yeah, I was still...
08:06I saw one of the highlights on social media, and I'm like, oh.
08:09Yeah, it was a laugher.
08:10Yeah.
08:11How about for Dusty now?
08:12This is two Final Fours in four years.
08:14Different schools, but to do it with two different schools in four years.
08:17There's Final Four again.
08:19Yeah.
08:20And, I mean, the reports are that, you know, Ward Manuel and Dusty May and the parties that
08:27are all involved have been working on a new deal since before the Big Ten tournament.
08:34And so, I mean, that's good to know because, obviously, North Carolina, I'm sure, is knocking
08:41on the door.
08:41There's going to be other programs that'll knock on the door, and they'll show up with
08:44a bag of money.
08:45And now it's going to be, you know, is he...
08:49Is Michigan going to be able to come up with the same bag of money?
08:52Are they willing to come up with the same bag of money?
08:54I would assume that they would for the coach, but we'll see.
09:00Is he going to be that mercenary that he's also hired?
09:03Tech says, John, I think they were talking about MSU and UConn as the A-hole showdown.
09:10Izzo and Hurley.
09:12No, I don't put...
09:14I mean, yeah, okay, he gets after officials.
09:16And, you know, would you want to be an official in that game?
09:19Probably not, but I still...
09:22I don't put Izzo in the same category as Hurley, or certainly not in the same category as Mick
09:28Cronin, the little man.
09:29Hate to break it to you, John, but Dusty is the more hated coach over Hurley.
09:33Unnamed text.
09:35Okay, outside of Michigan circles, he may be.
09:38That's fine.
09:40As the kids like to say, they hate us because they ain't us.
09:45It's true.
09:46So, look, there are programs that spent more on their roster than Michigan, and they are
09:50not playing right now.
09:52Kentucky, Duke, Louisville, among others.
09:57So, look, the portal's there for everybody.
10:00You got to identify talent and build a team.
10:02Dusty's done it.
10:03And it's very similar to...
10:06And I praised Kirk Signetti for not necessarily spending the money or working the system like
10:15you can now in today's college sports atmosphere, the business of college sports, but to be able
10:22to bring in, in year one, 40 new guys into the program this year, same thing, a whole bunch
10:30of new guys, remaking the roster every year, that's what you do in college sports now.
10:35But to be able to get those guys to gel and become a team, and I think it's even more
10:41important in football because instead of five guys, you've got 11 on one side.
10:45You've got 22 guys.
10:46You've got 33 guys if you're including special teams.
10:48Like, that's a tough job to do, and it takes a great coach to do that.
10:52Well, you got to get everybody on the same page and connect everybody.
10:54They certainly have on the floor.
10:56Tom's question was about fans.
10:57Do you feel it's connected to this team, just to put some context to it, Michigan was
11:02an underdog in the national title when they faced Villanova.
11:04They were an underdog in the national title slightly when they faced Louisville.
11:08Michigan is favored on Saturday night, albeit by a point and a half, but Michigan is favored.
11:14I would think you'd feel connected to a team you most believed could win a national title.
11:19Their best chance to win a national title since the Fab Five is what you're watching right
11:24now.
11:24So whether you watch these guys, you know, hatch and grow for four years or not, I think
11:31you watch your television and you see them decapitate everybody, and I would think it
11:35rallies people to four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
11:39We'll talk Tigers, Wings and Decker later in the hour.
11:42We start with John and his obnoxious maze in blue obnoxious.
11:48Yes, it's very aggressive today.
11:49It's very aggressive.
11:50It's 97-1.
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