Good Ole Podcast: A Virginia Athletics Podcast · 247Sports, Virginia, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Cavaliers Football, Virginia Cavaliers Basketball, College Basketball, College Football

🏀✏️NCAA Tournament preview/mega-pod spectacular: Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander pick every March Madness game and reveal their brackets!

·1 hr 19 min·5 clips
Duke’s route to the Final Four runs through Mississippi State, Arizona, and VCU.
1. Good Ole Podcast: A Virginia Athletics Podcast centers this episode on a full NCAA tournament bracket preview with Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander. 2. GP and Norlander are the two bracket-builders here, and their picks matter because they are revealing every game forecast and comparing regions. 3. The episode exists to let listeners follow the South, West, and East regions and see which one-seed path looks safest. 4. The South conversation starts with Auburn, Louisville, Creighton, Michigan, Yale, Ole Miss, Iowa State, Marquette, and Michigan State. 5. Auburn is projected through Louisville, Michigan, Ole Miss, and Michigan State to reach the Final Four. 6. The hosts debate whether Louisville's Rupp Arena edge, Michigan's size, or Michigan State's profile makes them Auburn's biggest regional threat. 7. The South also includes a detailed run on UC San Diego, with Oniwaniwa Tate-Jones singled out as a 6-foot-6 senior guard. 8. Yale appears again as a live underdog choice, and James Jones is cited as having done it twice before. 9. The West bracket opens with Florida, UConn, Memphis, Maryland, Drake, Missouri, Texas Tech, Kansas, Arkansas, and St. John's. 10. Tyrese Hunter's absence at Memphis changes the Rams conversation, and Penny Hardaway's team is treated as a live pick without him. 11. The hosts keep returning to Drake as a trendy underdog, and one of them says his son has Drake in the Final Four. 12. Rick Pitino's St. John's run gets a long explanation built around the Red Storm's 30-4 record, Big East titles, and defense. 13. The West regional also includes a Florida-UConn rematch reference from the 2014 Final Four and a reminder that the teams met 11 years ago. 14. The East region discussion starts with Duke, Mississippi State, Oregon, Liberty, Arizona, Akron, VCU, BYU, Wisconsin, Montana, St. Mary's, Vanderbilt, Alabama, and Robert Morris. 15. VCU is framed as a power-conference-level program in a non-power league because Ryan Odom and the staff kept Max Shulga with NIL support. 16. Duke is projected to reach the Final Four after discussions about Mississippi State's guards, Arizona's bracket reputation, and whether Duke has the easiest path of the four one-seeds. 17. The tone is conversational and argumentative, with the hosts interrupting each other, checking numbers, and making picks in real time. 18. The format mixes bracket analysis, personal anecdotes, and live back-and-forth gambling-style comparisons like “stay or hit.” 19. Listeners who follow college basketball brackets, underdog picks, and region-by-region breakdowns will get the most from this. 20. Listeners who want a short recap without detailed bracket permutations may skip it.

As heard by us

A brisk NCAA bracket preview with enough restraint to keep the picks from sounding absolute.

The annual NCAA bracket-picks show moves quickly into its forecast mode, laying out pick by pick choices and keeping the listener invited into the game.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want every NCAA Tournament pick on the table before the bracket chaos starts.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on