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00:00But when it comes to Texas Tech in Florida, are you with the consensus? Do you believe the Gators
00:05this is really their game to lose and that the, you know, any sort of a plucky underdog story
00:12we would like to give a three seed in Texas Tech ends here today? I've been on board with Florida
00:19as being either the number one team in the country or right behind Duke, kind of like a 1A, 1B,
00:26really since January. Like we know what we're getting from Florida. I'm inclined to take the
00:30points with Texas Tech, especially take them early. You know, I think we'd all agree that
00:35Florida is the better team overall. So my theory coming into this game or my thesis essentially
00:40coming into that, I think Texas Tech, if they're in it early and they can cover the first half,
00:44I think there'll be in it for the majority of the game. But if Florida gets out and they're
00:47running and they got the offense moving, I think they could win this game by 10 points.
00:51So Texas Tech, they have to be in it early or they won't be in it at all. You know,
00:54I want to lean on a lot of unders as we've seen. Now you said, you know,
00:57unders are hitting at 56% or roughly thereabouts. It's weird to say that when we have Alabama and
01:02Duke coming up later, these teams are pouring in a hundred plus points, seemingly every game,
01:06Alabama hitting a million threes. But when it comes to Texas Tech and Florida, I want to say
01:11going with the points with Florida is the right way to go. They are just so dominant from start
01:18to finish. They have all the pieces that you want. They have good guard play. They're big.
01:21They have good bench play. I think that's where I'm going to be leaning. I think Florida's the
01:26answer. It's really as simple as that. Texas Tech is good, but they're not as good as Florida.
01:32Texas Tech's path and how dare you mock teams of the caliber of UNC Wilmington. But that is exactly
01:39who the Red Raiders knocked out in the opening round. They won by 10 in that 3-14 matchup.
01:44Moved on. A lot of people were on Drake. This is another one of the wannabes,
01:48Cinderella's the 11th seed. Oh, Ted Drake's live for the upset. I'll take Drake plus six and a
01:53half, all that stuff. Nope. Texas Tech dismantled them one by 13 where things got dicey. Obviously
01:59it was a couple of nights ago against Arkansas in that 3-10 matchup that Texas Tech had to rally
02:05to come back. This was a two point win. Texas Tech in that one was, you know, down 16 points in the
02:12second half before coming back, obviously winning in overtime. Over the last 25 years,
02:17a dozen teams have won a swing game in OT and then nine failed to cover the spread in the Elite
02:24Eight, which again tells me in part whether that's again emotional letdown or physical letdown. This
02:30is, there's not a lot of breathing room, a lot of recovery time and a superior team in this particular
02:36case on the other side who, like you said, there are a lot of people that going into the tournament
02:40believe that Florida, not Duke, should have been, you know, the number one overall seed. This is
02:45the team that is going to advance at the very least to the national title game, maybe win the
02:49whole thing. If you just believe in Florida just to get to the final four, then Texas Tech probably
02:56is not going to be right there to get things done today. And plus there is the injury factor. We do
03:01not know as it sits right now, whether Chance McMillan is going to be available in this game.
03:06He's been sidelined dealing with the oblique strain. Clearly the offense is, you know, very
03:11good, but not the same without him. It's just another thing to support taking the Gators here.
03:18Right. And I, you know, part of me wants to say, like, I could see this game playing out largely as
03:22we did see Florida versus Maryland, where it was close in the first day. It was a 40 to 38 at halftime
03:28between Florida and Maryland. And then ultimately Florida pulls away because they are the better
03:32team. They just have more talent, more depth. And that's how I realistically can see this playing
03:37out where we're talking about three, four points at halftime, but that attrition will wear on Texas
03:43Tech. And again, if you want to buy into those things, like an overtime game, some of these
03:46trends that we have to support taking Florida, that's really where it will come through where
03:51the final few minutes, I don't want to say it's the same as we saw with Florida versus UConn,
03:55but Florida's better team. And when push comes to shove and extra possession here or there,
03:59they will look to get it done and they will end up getting it done.