Former Gonzaga All-American Dan Dickau and Gonzaga Nation reporter Cole Forsman share their favorite first round games of the 2024 NCAA Tournament
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00:00 Gonzaga Nation, Dan Dickow alongside our journalist Cole Forsman.
00:05 We're going to break down our first round matchup in each region that we are most excited
00:12 for.
00:13 There's a lot of unique matchups based on what the selection committee saw, what they
00:19 thought they saw, which isn't correct and true.
00:22 And I know every analyst says that at this point in the year they made mistakes.
00:25 Well, there, there's always mistakes in the NCAA tournament.
00:28 I think one of the biggest ones is the under seating of the Mountain West in the East Coast
00:35 media bias.
00:36 It will be the omission of many big East teams.
00:39 But Cole, let's get it going right away.
00:41 Let's go in the West bracket.
00:47 We'll go.
00:48 Who do you got in the West?
00:52 As my favorite matchup.
00:54 As your favorite first round matchup.
00:56 First round.
00:57 Yes.
00:58 I'm going to go date Nevada, which is the 710 game.
01:01 Dayton, I think probably was seated, maybe a little too high.
01:05 I think Nevada out of the Mountain West.
01:08 That'd be just a fun matchup all around really.
01:13 That is an interesting one.
01:14 The one I'm going to go for is the 215 that is Arizona versus Long Beach State.
01:20 And for anybody who's a Gonzaga fan, you've got to be
01:29 interested in that one for sure.
01:30 And the reason being Long Beach State's head coach, Dan Monson, was the coach at Gonzaga
01:35 before Mark Few.
01:37 Mark Few, Dan Monson are bestest of friends, right?
01:41 They lived together while they were both young assistant coaches at Gonzaga.
01:44 They were part of that elite eight staff where Monson was the head coach.
01:49 Then left to Minnesota, Coach Few takes over.
01:51 Obviously G.U.'s where it's become now Montana, or excuse me, Monson's been at Long Beach
01:57 State for 17 years.
01:59 Went to the tournament early in his tenure.
02:01 I believe it was his first year.
02:02 He's in his 17th year there.
02:04 He was fired on Monday.
02:06 They go and win the conference tournament at the end of the week.
02:10 He's back in the NCAA tournament to kind of bookend his career at Long Beach State.
02:15 I think it's a fascinating story going against Arizona.
02:18 As we all know, if you're following Gonzaga, knows that Tommy Lloyd was essentially the
02:23 head coach and waiting at Gonzaga.
02:25 If Coach Few were to ever step away, he's gone on to Arizona and done great things.
02:32 So that would be my matchup.
02:35 Moving on to the East.
02:36 Who do you got in the East?
02:40 A familiar opponent of Gonzaga.
02:43 Yale is coming back to Spokane as a 13 seed to take on a really deep and loaded Auburn
02:50 team.
02:51 Yale has Danny Wolfe, 7-footer, who we probably could play at a power conference level.
03:00 Auburn's got Broome, Jomani Broome I think is his name.
03:04 I think that's a fun matchup, especially being in Spokane Arena.
03:09 Yale out of the Ivy, facing an SEC school.
03:12 It's kind of like the big dog versus the little dog.
03:16 So I think that would be a very fun matchup.
03:20 That's a great call.
03:21 And that was going to be my second choice out of this bracket.
03:25 I'll actually be calling that game for Westwood One Radio.
03:27 So I've started doing my prep on both teams.
03:30 Yale obviously played Gonzaga, as you mentioned, but Auburn, at one point, they were one of
03:35 the hottest teams in the country.
03:37 So Bruce Pearl's always as excited and animated on the sidelines as they come.
03:42 So that'll be a good one.
03:43 But the matchup I have is another 2-15, and that's Iowa State led by head coach T.J.
03:50 Otzelberger against 15-seed South Dakota State.
03:54 And the reason I picked this, kind of like the intrigue between 2-15 Arizona and Long
03:58 Beach State, T.J.
03:59 Otzelberger was the head coach at South Dakota State before he went to UNLV for a couple
04:03 years.
04:04 And so the trajectory of his coaching career kind of brings both of those two programs
04:11 together.
04:12 So that's what I would be looking out for.
04:14 Let's head to the South now, where Houston is the one seed.
04:17 What's your favorite first round matchup in the South?
04:20 I'm going to go Wisconsin and James Madison in a 5-12 matchup.
04:25 Obviously the intrigue alone of 5-12.
04:28 Twelves have upset 5-seeds a lot.
04:30 James Madison, one of the few teams in the country to win 30 games.
04:35 They beat Michigan State in the season opener.
04:38 Wisconsin just coming off a Big Ten title in the conference tournament.
04:43 So I think that's a fun matchup and that could lead to probably whoever's playing Duke in
04:50 the next round.
04:51 So I think that would be a fun one to watch in Brooklyn.
04:55 My first round matchup in this is not actually a first round matchup.
05:01 It's actually the play-in game in this bracket, in this region.
05:05 It's Boise State and Colorado.
05:08 Boise State, there's no way they should be a 10-seed.
05:10 It's mind-boggling where their net was at, their strength of schedule that they had,
05:14 and the fact that they were second in the Mountain West Conference.
05:19 This one is intriguing though as well because anybody that follows Gonzaga knows that Leon
05:24 Rice was an assistant at Gonzaga with Mark Few.
05:28 But both those coaches, Mark Few and Leon Rice, are very well connected to Colorado
05:34 head coach Tad Boyle, who was at Oregon for a while with Dan Monson's dad, Don Monson,
05:40 when he was the head coach.
05:41 And another intriguing tie-in to that game is Colorado assistant Bill Greer was also
05:48 an assistant at Gonzaga alongside Leon Rice.
05:51 So these teams know each other extremely well.
05:54 That game will be on Tuesday night.
05:55 I'm looking forward to that one for sure.
05:58 So let's head to the Midwest.
05:59 Obviously we went more in-depth on this because this is the bracket that Gonzaga is in.
06:04 But give me your game that you're looking forward to in the Midwest.
06:10 Well it could be potentially Gonzaga's second-round opponent, either Kansas or Sanford.
06:17 Kansas, we touched on it a little bit in a different video, but they're a little banged
06:21 up right now.
06:22 Kevin McCullough Jr., Hunter Diggins said did not play in the Big 12 tournament.
06:26 They said they were going to play in the NCAA tournament.
06:29 Still no official word as I've seen on that.
06:33 And then facing a Sanford Bulldogs team, 29-5.
06:37 I think they're receiving votes in the AP poll at one point in the year.
06:40 So I think it's a 13-4 game.
06:43 That's very intriguing.
06:44 And obviously if, you know, Gonzaga fans are hopeful that they take care of McNeese State
06:49 in the first round, more attention I think should be put on that one.
06:54 I'm going to go the South Carolina-Oregon game.
06:59 You know, Oregon is a team that went to the Final Four the same year Gonzaga did in 2017.
07:05 Dana Altman, one of the best coaches in the country at retooling rosters, he was a master
07:12 of the transfer portal before it became a common theme.
07:16 And you know, this year he's had to kind of retool things along the way because of injuries.
07:22 But they've got a freshman point guard in Jackson Shelsted that I really like.
07:26 So that will be the game that I'm most looking forward to watching for the first round out
07:31 of the Midwest.
07:32 So great stuff, Cole, for Gonzaga Nation.
07:35 He's Cole Forsman, I'm Dan Dickow.
07:38 Continue to check out all of our coverage on our social media platforms as well as on
07:43 our website, Gonzaga Nation.
07:46 Thanks for checking us out.