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00:00John, as we look at these two teams, of course, it's been well reported by now that all four
00:04of these one seeds are some of the best teams we have seen in college basketball in the
00:09last two decades.
00:10When you look at Duke, the national championship favorites before the year got started, the
00:15national favorites, national title favorites entering the big dance, and of course, the
00:19even money national title favorites entering Final Four weekend in San Antonio.
00:24What is the best thing about what the Blue Devils do on the basketball floor?
00:28Their defense, and I think that's the thing that really deserves more attention.
00:32You know, I saw this when I was at a Duke practice early in the year.
00:36Duke's positional size is the most undervalued thing about this basketball team, really,
00:41all season long.
00:42Ben, there is not a player on the Blue Devils roster that stands smaller than 6'4", and
00:47you saw that against Alabama.
00:50Alabama, in the Sweet 16 against BYU, put up 113 points against the Blue Devils, only
00:5665, and that's an Alabama team, again, that averaged 91 points per game.
01:0225 made threes in the Sweet 16, only eight against the Dukies on Saturday night in Newark.
01:09John, to the other side, for this Cougs team, they have reached the Sweet 16 six consecutive
01:14years now.
01:15This is their second Final Four berth in the last five years, but for Kelman Sampson and
01:20Houston, we know what it's like playing against the Cougars.
01:24They make life miserable on the defensive side of the four.
01:28What's the biggest difference about this year's Houston team as compared to the past few seasons?
01:33Well, if we're looking at it compared to last year, Ben, it's simply health and depth.
01:39Last year, I had the good fortune of being in a situation where I was with Houston in
01:44the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament, and remember, this was a Houston team that
01:48lost Terrence Arsenault to a season-ending Achilles injury, it was a team that lost Joseph
01:52Tugler to a season-ending foot injury, and if you remember, Houston played Duke in the
01:57Sweet 16 last year, and Jamal Shedd left that game with an ankle injury.
02:02So Houston was a shell of itself from a depth perspective, from a health perspective, knock
02:07on wood right now, everything is aligned from a health and a depth perspective for Kelvin
02:12Sampson's team, and that's why they're the pick that I made prior to the NCAA Tournament
02:16to cut down the nets, and I'm not wavering from that prediction.
02:20John, you took the words right out of my mouth.
02:22The official John Rothstein prediction for our National Championship game in San Antonio
02:28was the Houston Cougars facing off against the Florida Gators, with the Cougs reaching
02:32that pinnacle and cutting down the nets.
02:36Why do you remain confident, John Rothstein, that that will be what we see on Monday night?
02:41I said it before the tournament, I'm not wavering from that prediction.
02:44I think it's the continuity, I think it's also the fact that Houston has so many different
02:50players who can be the assassin.
02:52It can be Cryer, it can be Usain, it can be Arsenault, it can be Roberts, and I also want
02:57to point this out, Juwan Roberts has the obviously unique, unique distinction of being the only
03:03player in Houston's program that was a part of the run in 2021 and was a part of the run
03:08this year in 2025.
03:09He's going to go down in special lore when it comes to obviously the history of Houston's
03:13program.